Hell Hath No Fury
by Bob Lobster
Summary: Ranma/Sailor Moon Crossover - Minako Aino has come face to face with her worst nightmare and his name is Ranma
1. Hate At First Sight

Hell Hath No Fury  
A Ranma/Sailormoon Crossover  
By: Bob Lobster  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma. I don't own Sailormoon. Don't you have  
someone with money to bug?  
  
Chapter 1: Hate At First Site  
  
The night was dark. The night was dark and cold. The night was  
downright uncomfortably dark and cold and Genma Saotome really didn't  
appreciate it. Although in his present position, the dark part was  
probably a blessing, as it did manage to hinder anyone who may have  
seen him. Yes, perhaps the dark part was a rather good thing if he  
wished to stay in London much longer, perched as he was on the church  
window sill, money already in his pocket from a good night's  
thief........er, borrowing. That was all he was doing after all,  
borrowing the money for now to keep him and the boy in food for a  
while. As soon as the boy was happily married to a Tendo, any would  
do, and making lots of money from teaching in the dojo, he could go  
around and pay back all these little......donations to the cause. If  
they knew that their little bit of money would help to make the best  
martial artist in the world, I'm sure they'd be thrilled to donate a  
bit of money after all. Who wouldn't?  
  
*The cold still sucks though* Genma thought to himself as he sat  
on the sill, looking around for anyone who may spot him. Slowly,  
soundlessly lowering himself to the ground, Genma looked around once  
more before breathing a sigh of relief.  
  
*Another job well done, Genma old boy.* He thought to himself, as  
he relaxed and began heading away from the church. *Who would have  
thought that the.....shudder....Master's training would have paid off  
so well.*  
  
Suddenly, a tingling went down his spine, the type he only got  
when he was in danger, and he turned around quickly to see if the  
police had arrived at the scene. Spotting no one, Genma began to  
wonder if perhaps he was getting a bit jumpy before shrugging it off  
and turning back in the direction of the park he'd left the boy  
practicing in. When he looked in front of him however, his heart  
nearly stopped in startlement, as someone was standing there. Once his  
heart slowed down to a reasonable pace again, he took a good look at  
the person blocking his path and almost snickered out loud.  
  
*This is what set off my danger sense. * He thought in amusement.  
*Maybe I better have it tuned up a bit.*  
  
At that point, the person before him began to speak, and he was  
forced to put his hand over his mouth in order to stop himself from  
laughing out loud.  
  
"How dare you steal from a church, that's wrong and I won't allow  
it. I'm Sailor V, and in the name of Love and Justice, I'll punish  
you." The young girl, no more than 12 or 13, then poses in what is no  
doubt supposed to be a heroic pose, making all Genma's attempts not to  
laugh in vain as he bursts into loud guffaws. The girl stares at him  
for a moment wondering why her heroic entrance didn't manage to  
receive the reaction she was looking for, before scowling at the man's  
inability to stop laughing.  
  
As Genma finally manages to get his mirth under control he stands  
to full height again, wiping a quick tear from his eye and looks upon  
the would-be hero once more. Sailor V stands quite a bit shorter than  
him, maybe five feet even at the most, and is dressed in an  
abbreviated sailor outfit like they seem to be wearing in all the  
Japanese schools these days (making Genma glad he didn't have a  
daughter, as he'd be damned if he let her wear one of those things).  
Her outfit was mostly made up of a white cut off top with red strips  
at the bottom and half-red, half-white sleeves. It had a blue collar,  
blue cuffs and a bright red bow on the chest. She was also wearing a  
way-too-short blue skirt (if she'd been older, it would have been  
rather attractive, but young as she was Genma's fathering instincts,  
little as they were, couldn't help but disapprove) and long white  
gloves. She had long, upper-thigh length blond hair done up in a  
rather cute bow on the back and had her face covered by a red mask.  
Although the mask couldn't quite cover the angry glare she was now  
sending towards Genma, the look tended to make her a little cuter in  
Genma's opinion. All in all, she looked more like someone attempting  
to appeal to pedophiles than the defender of Justice she claimed to be  
and Genma had to stop himself from scolding her on how she chose to  
dress. Instead he merely shook his head and turned around to head in  
the other direction. Not that he couldn't have taken her out with a  
great deal of ease, in his opinion, but Genma had a thing against  
hitting girls, even if they were under-dressed crime fighters.  
  
By then, Sailor V was absolutely seething in anger. First he  
laughed at her entrance, then he had the gull to turn his back at her  
and just walk away. No one had ever insulted her so much and she was  
furious. So, without any preamble or hesitation, she angrily threw up  
her arms and called forth her attack.  
  
"Venus Crescent Beam!" V shouted, firing a beam of orange light at  
the tub of lard who not only dared to steal from a church, but also  
turned his back on her when she tried to stop him. The powerful attack  
shot forth from her hands, hitting Genma directly in the small of his  
back and sending him flying forward to land face first on the ground.  
He lay there for a few moments, exposed back smoking slightly where  
the beam struck him, and pondering the strangely powerful attack that  
the young girl had thrown at him. It couldn't have been chi, he knew  
that much, not only because he didn't feel it the way he would have a  
chi blast, but also because he knew that no woman could ever be good  
enough at the art to be able to use chi. He had to assume it was magic  
of some sort then, something granted to her by some force that took  
pity on powerless woman and gave them something to use so they could  
be on the level of men. All these deductions running through Genma's  
head led him to the conclusion that, although he still wouldn't fight  
a thirteen year old girl, he should probably leave in more of a hurry  
than he had previously attempted. Especially should whoever gave the  
girl her power show up.  
  
As Genma lay there, Sailor V was surveying her latest catch  
proudly. Maybe he did look old and fat, and maybe using the Venus  
Crescent Beam had been a bit of overkill, but damn it, he insulted  
her. Besides, it felt really good to fry the bastard. She chuckled to  
herself as she walked up to the man, preparing to tie him up somewhere  
where the police could find him so that she could finally call it a  
night, when she heard a voice behind her that caught her attention  
away from her pray.  
  
"Stay away from my pop!" Yelled a young male voice before Sailor V  
felt a strong kick land to her back sending her flying to the ground  
and filling her vision with sparkling lights and dancing black spots.  
She lay on her hands and knees for a few moments, breathing deeply and  
trying to restore her vision to normal before pushing herself quickly  
to her feet and surveying her newest opponent. Once she got her first  
look at the boy before her, all she could do was stare. He was  
absolutely gorgeous. He was about her age, and stood slightly taller  
than her, maybe an inch or two. He was Japanese, just like her, but  
also like her, he had a pair of deep blue eyes making her briefly  
wonder at the odds of meeting another blue-eyed Japanese person. His  
hair was long and black, pulled back into a short but think ponytail  
that made him even cuter, and really brought out the blue of his eyes  
better. He was wearing a dirty white martial arts dogi, which showed  
off his well-muscled chest nicely and would have had V blushing and  
drooling under other circumstances. Sighing to herself at the  
unfairness of being up against such a gorgeous boy, Sailor V got into  
a quick stance and faced off against the hunk......er, enemy before  
her.  
  
Genma turned over to see his son facing off against the young lady  
who had assaulted him, momentarily unsure whether to be proud of the  
boy for helping him out or to berate him for attacking a girl. Unsure  
that is until he heard what the boy said next.  
  
******************************************************************  
  
Ranma was skulking down the quite street at far too late an hour  
in his opinion. His father had disappeared while he had been  
practicing his katas and that could only mean that he was getting  
himself into trouble somewhere. Ranma had to be the only thirteen year  
old in existence that had to keep an eye on his own father and he  
hated it, but someone had to keep the useless bugger from ending up in  
some foreign jail and fate seemed to have chosen him. Sighing to  
himself, Ranma walked quickly in the direction of the buildings they  
had passed earlier where his father had seemed to linger the longest.  
He only tended to do that when he planned to raid them for food or  
money so Ranma had had a good idea at the time what the old man had  
planned; he just hadn't expected him to try so early. Usually Genma  
waited until they had been in town for a few days before beginning to  
raid the local businesses for him own uses.  
  
As he passes by a local church Ranma heard a commotion down one of  
the allies and silently prayed that it wasn't his pop. Bad as his  
father's thieving usually was, Ranma really hated it when he targeted  
churches and temples. Not that Ranma was catholic or anything, it was  
just that people tended to get a lot more upset when a religious place  
has stolen from as opposed to a place of business. This in turn got  
the two of the chased out of town a lot sooner and that was something  
Ranma definitely didn't appreciate, especially now that he knew the  
reason for their quick exodus. It's not that he didn't appreciate that  
the old man kept the both of them fed, Ranma just really wished he  
could find a more......legal way to do it. So, with a feeling of dread  
at what he was going to find, Ranma turned towards the church and  
started heading towards the alley.  
  
When he reached the mouth of the alley between the church and the  
building next to it, the first thing Ranma saw was the back an enraged  
girl as she raised her arms and, with a quick shout of "Venus Crescent  
Beam", fired a blast of yellow energy at his father's back, knocking  
Genma on his face and forming a smoking hole in the back of his dogi.  
Now normally Ranma would be all for a little Genma bashing and would  
leave his father to his fate, however on their way into town Ranma had  
seen several newspapers featuring pictures of a certain crimefighter  
that was prominent in London. He knew that the person now walking  
towards his father was the rather infamous Sailor V and also knew that  
she intended to hand his father into the police, something that Ranma  
couldn't allow if he ever planned on getting home. Besides, saving  
Genma from a young teenage girl would give Ranma something to hold  
over his father for years to come.  
  
*Heh, I'd like to see pop talk his way out of this humiliation*  
Ranma thought with a grin as he began walking quickly towards the  
costumed crime fighter. He thought about the best way to approach the  
fight that was sure to happen and decided that he had better strike  
quickly and decisively if he wanted to avoid being on the receiving  
end of a blast that could floor even his father. Although he was sure  
he was fast enough to dodge the attack should it come to that, he  
wasn't prepared to take the chance. Seeing Sailor V getting close  
enough to attack his father again and his father still not moving  
Ranma decided he should get the fight started. *Better get this over  
with.*  
  
"Stay away from my pop!" He yelled, affixing a suitably upset-  
looking frown to his face, before throwing himself forward in a quick  
sidekick he was sure would end the fight there and then. His kick  
struck the girl in the back (he hated attacking someone from the back,  
but he decided he would hate taking a Venus Crescent Beam a lot more,  
so he put up with the guilt) and she went down quickly, striking the  
concrete on hands and knees, something that was sure to cause some  
nasty scraps and bruises, but Ranma couldn't worry about not hurting  
her if he was to finish this quickly. She stayed on the ground for a  
few moments, seemingly getting her equilibrium settled and Ranma was  
tempted to strike again and end the battle at that but his honour,  
already badly stretched by the sneak attack, wouldn't let him strike  
an already downed opponent. Instead he glanced over at his father,  
noticing that he had turned over and sat up to watch the fight, before  
turning back towards V and waiting for her to rise.  
  
When, after a few moments of regaining her balance, the costumed  
heroine did rise up and turn to face him Ranma was stunned for a  
moment by the vision before him. She was beautiful. More than  
beautiful, she was breathtaking standing before him with her long,  
golden hair blowing in the gentle breeze and her chest heaving  
slightly from the exertion. She had bright blue eyes, peaking out from  
behind a red mask which couldn't hide her beauty from him, and for a  
moment Ranma wondered at the odds of finding another Japanese person  
with eyes the same colour as his, let alone finding one in England of  
all places. She had long, shapely legs, which headed up towards a  
skirt so short it would have given Ranma a nosebleed had it not been  
for the combative circumstances. She also had the cutest look of  
surprise on her face, and for a moment Ranma cursed his father for  
getting into trouble with such a cute girl. Lots of people who had met  
Ranma came under the impression that he was completely unnoticing of  
the fairer sex, a fact that was completely untrue. It was true that he  
tended to ignore girls in favour of his training and that, given the  
chance, he wouldn't really know what to do with a girl anyway, but he  
certainly noticed them. In fact, at his age, he was having more and  
more trouble ignoring them, even though his father insisted that they  
were merely unnecessary distractions from the art. It was thus very  
easy to understand that he was slightly flustered for a moment after  
seeing the girl he was facing, but it was only a moment before his  
training kicked in and he quickly pasted a smirk on his face and began  
the job of taunting his opponent as his father had taught him.  
  
"He may be a fat, useless bastard, but I still can't let some two-  
bit crimefighter in a stupid looking costume bring him in." He smirked  
a bit as he saw her face darken in outrage at his insult and prepared  
to face off against her, dropping in a loose battle stance similar to  
the one she had taken. He took a quick glance at his father to see him  
glaring at the insult, before turning his full attention to the girl  
who was now absolutely seething at the way he'd described her.  
  
"Tu-two-bit cr-crimefighter?" Sailor V stuttered out in outrage as  
she stared at Ranma, clenching and unclenching her fist as if  
preparing to throttle him barehanded. (Which Ranma wouldn't put past  
her in her present disposition) "St-stupid looking costume? How dare  
you?!?"  
  
She then threw her hands up and, without even calling the name of  
her attack, fired the most powerful Crescent Beam she had ever  
managed, sending the beam of yellow energy lancing towards the  
smirking martial artist who just leaned to the side, allowing the  
energy to pass by him. Even as the beam passed harmlessly beside him,  
Ranma felt really lucky to have realized she was attacking. From the  
amount of heat he felt even without being hit by the beam, he wasn't  
entirely sure he would have survived getting stuck by it. This fact  
struck home the importance of not taking this particular opponent,  
girl or no girl, for granted. So, he reaffixed his cocky grin, the one  
he knew drove opponents crazy, to his face and ran towards the now  
heavily breathing Sailor V.  
  
******************************************************************  
  
"He may be a fat, useless bastard, but I still can't let some two-  
bit crimefighter in a stupid looking costume bring him in." The boy in  
front of her said, a confident smirk on his face which would have had  
her swooning had her mind not been stuck on the insults he had just  
thrown towards him.  
  
*He didn't just call me what I think he called me.* Reviewing  
what he had said quickly in her mind Sailor V quickly came to the  
conclusion that the hideous bastard in front of her had indeed just  
insulted not only her crimefighting skills but also her fashion sense,  
something no man had ever dared do before now. Shaking in rage, she  
managed to stutter out a few words before her anger completely over-  
powered her and she fired off what had to be the most powerful attack  
she had ever used, one that for once didn't require her to call out  
the name first. Watching the Crescent Beam fly towards its target, V  
smirked at what she believed to be another easy victory over a good-  
looking but obviously evil-hearted boy. Time seemed to slow to a crawl  
however, as she watched him easily lean to one side, almost further  
than should be possible, allowing her attack to harmlessly pass him  
by. Heaving for breath from the energy-toll of the powerful blast she  
had just fired, she could only watch, jaw-hanging and eyes wide, as  
her target straightened out and looked at her with an even cockier  
grin on his face, a grin that made her want to scream in rage at his  
impertinence. She was Sailor V, feared by criminals and monsters alike  
throughout London, and here was this boy her own age treating her like  
a rank amateur.  
  
Her face formed into a snarl and a low growl escaped her lips as  
she watched the boy run towards her and prepared to meet his attack.  
He led off with a straight punch, which traveled at an amazing speed  
towards her face. Luckily her Sailor form provided her with incredible  
speed of her own and she was able to throw up a quick block before  
returning a few punches of her own, a jab at his head followed by a  
reverse punch towards his stomach. He moved his head to the side  
slightly, avoiding the jab but had to block the punch with an open  
hand before returning with a snap kick that had her jumping backwards  
to avoid. Both opponents then sized each other up for another moment  
before jumping at each other again.  
  
******************************************************************  
  
Ranma stood back a moment after Sailor V had avoided his snap kick  
and reevaluated her as a fighter. She seemed to have some amount of  
training, nowhere near as much as he did but the training was  
definitely there, and what seemed to be battle-ingrained reflexes but  
it was her speed and strength that put her as the real threat. Both  
her speed and strength seemed almost inhuman as she fought him at  
levels that he hadn't seen outside of himself and his father and Ranma  
was sure that if not for his superior skills he would be on the losing  
end of this battle. As it was however, he had the slightly higher  
speed and although her strength was a bit more than his he was certain  
that with his skill he could easily finish this battle in his favour.  
Smirking cockily once more he decided to see if he could get her any  
more riled up with a quick appraisal of her fighting skills.  
  
"Not bad," Ranma began, before really pouring on the Saotome  
'charm', "Not bad for an amateur that is. Your speed is pretty good  
and that strength isn't bad either, but your form really needs work.  
I'd suggest lowering you centre of gravity a bit. You might want to  
straighten your punches a bit more too. Oh and your telegraphing  
really badly too, you may want to work on that."  
  
His "advise" had the desired effect and he watched, pleased with  
himself, as V began practically shaking in rage once more before  
screaming inarticulately and throwing herself once more into the  
attack. Although Sailor V was quite obviously angry, Ranma was rather  
impressed by her control over her rage. She was still fighting using  
good technique and not lowering her defenses as he had seen many  
people do when they were enraged. This both impressed him and  
disappointed him, as the only reason he was taunting her in the first  
place was to get her to stop fighting intelligently, it made the fight  
that much more fun if he could get her that angry.  
  
Unfortunately it didn't happen though and her first attack was a  
nice side thrust kick, followed by a spinback kick leading into a  
backfist and a straight punch. All the moves were beautifully executed  
and against a lesser opponent would have easily finished him off,  
Ranma however was no lesser opponent. He easily sidestepped the  
sidekick before leaning backward to avoid both the spinback kick and  
the following backfist. The straight punch however was intercepted and  
redirected towards Ranma's left, allowing him to place his right  
shoulder under hers and push his hips backwards and up, throwing her  
over his shoulder and onto the ground in front of him. Sailor V  
immediately rolled forward and back to her feet before turning to once  
again face her opponent. That was when Ranma decided to give taunting  
her another try.  
  
******************************************************************  
  
Sailor V marveled at the boy's skill as he avoided the combo of  
kicks and punches she threw at him, even managing to use her last  
punch to send her flying over his head and onto the ground in front of  
him. Letting her experience guide her, V quickly rolled to her feet  
and put a bit of space between her and her allusive enemy. She was  
getting more and more impressed by him with every exchange and she was  
starting to wonder if perhaps this time she may have met her match.  
Not that she would stop fighting of course, justice had to be served  
and she couldn't let the fat bastard he was protecting get away with  
robbing a church. Plus she still had to get the boy back for his  
earlier comments, she just wasn't sure at this point whether either of  
those goals were even possible this time around. That was when he  
began speaking again and all thoughts of losing went out the window.  
  
"Hey, those were pretty good kicks," he began, grinning at her,  
"especially for someone as dumpy-legged as you are. Sorry about the  
flip by the way, but someone with your excess weight should have  
plenty of padding, so I doubt it hurt too much." At that point, Sailor  
V saw red.  
  
******************************************************************  
  
As Sailor V once more screamed loudly in feminine outrage and  
charged forward, Ranma grinned happily at having finally achieved his  
goal. She was now fighting blindly, her rage having completely taken  
control of her better instincts and was swinging wildly in a mad  
attempt to take his head off. Not that Ranma didn't believe in his  
ability to beat her easily without resorting to taunting of course,  
but he also firmly believed in his ability to drive anyone into a  
blind rage through only taunting and in bugged him slightly that she  
had kept her cool so well throughout his earlier remarks. Now that he  
had happily reaffirmed his ability, he was ready to finish the fight  
in his own fashion, preferably without hurting her too much.  
  
He dodged her first few wild swings with practiced ease as he  
waited to get her into a good position. Just as she got into the  
position he wanted he made his move. Ducking under a particularly  
powerful, but sloppily thrown punch, Ranma stepped forward allowing  
his right leg to land directly in front of hers and placing his right  
hand against her back. Pushing gently he sent her flying forward into  
a set of garbage bags lying on the side of the alley. Turning around  
as she struggled to her feet amidst the waste, he waited until she  
turned towards him and then lunged forward, hitting her on the temple  
with a quick knife hand to disorient her, and then sending a hook kick  
towards her, hitting her with his heel on a spot on the back of her  
thigh. The nerve bundle he struck in the middle of her hamstring  
caused her leg to immediately give out from under her, sending her  
crashing to the ground clutching her numb thigh. He then struck out  
quickly a spot just below the shoulder on each arm, causing them to go  
numb as well.  
  
******************************************************************  
  
Sailor V just sat there, unable to stand or properly move her arms  
and watched as the boy stood back slightly to survey his handy-work.  
Tears of outrage and a small amount of fear formed in her eyes as she  
watched the boy who had so efficiently defeated her turn and begin to  
walk towards his father, who was now standing at the end of the alley  
waiting for him. Just as he was about to reach the entrance she called  
out to him.  
  
"Wait!" She called. Once he had stopped and turned towards her she  
continued, in as dark a tone as she could manage in her condition.  
"This isn't over between us. I will bring you both to justice for what  
you've done today. I will beat you next time."  
  
The boy stared at her for a moment before grinning roguishly and  
answering in an insufferably cheery tone, "We'll see V-chan, we'll  
see. Until next time."  
  
He then waved at her and ran down the street after his father,  
leaving Sailor V on her knees in a pile of rotting garbage, tears  
rolling down her face in silent rage as she swore to herself that she  
wouldn't rest until she had avenged herself for tonight.  
  
******************************************************************  
  
Minako Aino shot upwards to a sitting position on her bed,  
knocking the comforter her parents had bought her for her sixteenth  
birthday on the floor along with a certain white cat that had been  
upon it. Said cat yowled in surprise before working to free himself  
from the tangled mess that was formerly an orange and blue comforter.  
Upon freeing himself completely he looked up towards his young ward  
and found her staring forward, a cold sweat on her forehead and her  
hands clenching and unclenching in seeming rage. He quickly hopped  
back up on the bed and tried to get Minako's attention to find out  
what had caused such a reaction.  
  
"Uhh, Minako? You okay there?" He began, slightly worried about  
the girl. It was rare these days that she had nightmares of any sort  
and the ones she did have usually left her more afraid than angry. In  
fact the last time he had seen her react this way was about two years  
ago when she finally stopped having dreams about Him. "Minako-chan?  
What's the matter?"  
  
Minako finally brought her heavy breathing under control and  
looked over to the concerned eyes of her cat and advisor, Artemis. She  
took another moment to compose herself a bit better before answering  
his questions. Shaking her head briefly to remove the last vestiges of  
her dream, she sighed a bit before looking towards him once more.  
  
"I'm okay Artemis, it was just a dream." She laid her head back  
down on her pillow and stared up at the ceiling of her room for a few  
moments before she felt Artemis pad his way across the bed towards her  
head. He jumped up on to her chest and stared at her face for a moment  
before laying down and continuing to interrogate her on what woke her  
up.  
  
"What was the dream about? From the way you woke up, it looked  
like a pretty bad nightmare. I haven't seen you react to a dream like  
that since you stopped dreaming about..." He let the sentence trail  
off as she looked at him with an angry scowl. She kept the scowl for a  
brief moment before allowing it to drop, unable to remain upset at the  
feline who was obviously worried about her.  
  
"Well, it seems I've started again." Minako said with a heartfelt  
sigh. The last thing she needed was to begin dreaming about Him again  
and reliving the constant humiliation He filled her life with for the  
time she knew Him. She draped her arm over her head in a futile effort  
to ward off the headache she always got after dealing with Him,  
whether in real life or just in her nightmares. "It's been so long  
since the last time I thought of Him. I'd thought, after the  
nightmares stopped, I'd never have to think about Him again. Damn."  
  
Artemis looked at his ward as she hide her face under her arm and  
knew how close to tears she was coming. It was the same every time she  
dreamed of those times two and a half years ago: she would wake up in  
a state of near rage before breaking down in tears and crying herself  
back to sleep. It looked like time had blunted her reaction quite a  
bit, but the emotions were still there, just muted down significantly  
from disuse.  
  
"Which dream was it anyway?" He asked, knowing that he got her  
talking it would help bring her raging emotions back in check. She  
only had a few real dreams about those times anyway, some of which hit  
her harder than others, so hopefully this was one of the lesser ones.  
  
"The first one." Minako answered, her voice catching slightly, but  
holding up much better than it would have when she was still having  
these dreams on a regular basis. It helped of course that she was  
happy right now, with a regular group of friends that cared about her  
deeply. It also helped that she had seen and experienced things a  
hundred times worse over the last two years than anything she had  
experienced before, putting the time spent with Him in better  
perspective. It didn't help much, but it did help. "The one where I  
first met Him, and that rat bastard of a father of His."  
  
"Ahhh." Was all Artemis could say in reply. Normally he would  
admonish her for cursing but under the circumstances he let it pass.  
She was always a bit more vocal when talking about Him. That was also  
not one of the better dreams she could have had, seeing as it was one  
of the more humiliating moments in her young life. Being thrown around  
like a rag doll and ending up paralyzed, however temporarily, amongst  
a pile of rotting garbage tends to leave some nasty scars on a  
thirteen-year old girl's mind. All in all, it was one of the dreams  
that, two years ago, would have left her a sobbing ball of rage and  
humiliation, so she was definitely doing a great deal better now.  
Still, Artemis did wonder why she was dreaming about Him now, after so  
long. Minako apparently had the same thoughts, as she asked the same  
question out loud a moment later.  
  
"I doubt it's anything to worry about." Artemis gently reassured  
his now significantly calmer ward. "You're probably just worried about  
your exams coming up and it's coming out in your dreams. You have been  
under a bit of stress lately, especially with all the recent attacks.  
Perhaps you should talk to one of the girls about it, it always helps  
to get things like this off your chest. I'm sure talking to one of  
them will make you feel much better."  
  
*That's assuming it doesn't just reaffirm the memories in your  
mind.* He thought to himself with a grimace. *Hopefully the dream will  
be forgotten in the morning though and we won't have to worry about it  
at all.*  
  
"Yes, that might be a good idea. We'll see in the morning though,  
maybe this'll be the only one." Minako replied, unconsciously  
mirroring Artemis' last thought. She then closed her eyes and  
attempted to shut off her thoughts so that she could return to a more  
blissfully uninterrupted slumber. "Goodnight Artemis."  
  
"Goodnight Minako-chan, and don't worry too much, I'm sure it'll  
be forgotten by morning." With that Artemis curled up on Minako's  
chest and fell back asleep quickly. Quickly enough that he didn't  
notice Minako laying awake and staring at the ceiling for a long time  
before joining him in slumber.  
  
******************************************************************  
  
Ranma Saotome woke up to a very familiar set of sensations; overly  
familiar in his less than humble opinion. The first feeling to assault  
his senses was that of a rather large pail of extremely cold water  
striking his sleeping form, this feeling in particular being the one  
to draw him from his sleep. This was followed by the tingling  
sensation, similar to the feeling of a limb falling asleep, of having  
his body switched from that of a teenaged boy to one that was  
decidedly female in gender. The final sensation to assault his, now  
her, senses this morning, bringing the completion of this particular  
ritual was the sound of a certain reluctant fiancee yelling at her to  
get up before she was late. This last was probably the part of the  
morning routine that bothered Ranma most of all. The feeling of  
awakening wet, while an inconvenience, was one she had gotten used to  
over ten years of sneak attacks first thing in the morning by her  
father. The switch in gender had become such a normal thing for her  
that it, as well, became something that she barely noticed anymore. In  
fact, at times she had been known to not even notice the change occur,  
having occasionally to look at her chest or speak a few words to know  
whether she was male or female. The yelling, however, the loud  
exclamations of things she knew not to be true was something she did  
not need assaulting her first thing in the morning.  
  
The fact of the matter was she had not been late to a meal without  
dire circumstances for more years than she could recall. Life on the  
road with her glutton of a father had seen to that as had she been  
late, she wouldn't have been eating. The moment the aroma of breakfast  
reached her nose, her body would react accordingly, waking her for  
some needed nourishment. Of course bringing this matter up would only  
lead to Akane getting angry with her for Ranma's inability to  
appreciate her effort in making sure she was on time. This in turn  
would lead to an argument that would end with Akane either ignoring  
her for the rest of the morning or returning her to slumberland with  
that thrice-damned mallet of hers. Secretly Ranma was of the opinion  
that Akane actually got some perverted pleasure out of confrontations  
with her, but she kept those thoughts to herself as they would  
definitely lead to a trip via Akane Airlines.  
  
So it was that she kept most of the insults she wanted to throw at  
Akane bottled up, merely grumbled a quick "uncute tomboy", more for  
appearance than any real satisfaction, and rose up to reluctantly  
begin her morning. At that point a new sensation struck her, one that  
always brought a smile to her face: the smell of breakfast. Giving a  
silent prayer of thanks that the smell seemed to be of Kasumi's  
cooking and not another so-called meal Akane had deigned to bless them  
with, Ranma quickly dressed in her favorite cloths, the loose black  
pants and red Chinese shirt, and headed, bath supplies in hand,  
towards the bathroom.  
  
Upon seeing that the occupied sign was indeed absent from the  
door, Ranma took a moment to knock several times to make certain that  
no one was using the furo. One could never be too certain of these  
things after-all, especially living with someone who would brain you  
if you accidentally walked in on her. Receiving no answer from her  
knocks, Ranma entered and went about her morning cleaning, starting  
with a quick cold water rinse, a lather and another rinse to remove  
the soap, finally finishing with a short soak in the furo itself to  
warm him up and return proper gender. He then dried off before  
dressing once again and following the enticing smells to the living  
room table, where he knew the meal would soon follow.  
  
Ranma's father was already at the table next to his mother and  
looked up when he entered the room. Genma gave him a look, which  
indicated his desire for a morning spar but then quickly glanced at  
Nodoka who was quietly sipping the tea in her hands. Nodoka had  
recently banned him from attacking Ranma for the purposes of sparring  
and only allowed them to spar if Ranma wanted to. Genma had complained  
but respect for his wife and a deep-seated fear for life and limb  
should she become upset quickly made him see the wisdom in her words.  
So, he sat and waited for Ranma give his say so that they could go  
about their morning sparring session. Unfortunately for Genma, Ranma  
was in a rather good mood this morning after having a nice dream about  
an old friend and he didn't feel like spoiling it by duking it out  
with his old man. As it was, the pleasant feelings that his memories  
of his "V-chan" always brought him were already somewhat strained by  
his unexpected bath earlier, courtesy of Akane, and he wanted to keep  
what remained of his good mood intact. So with a quick shake of his  
head to his father, ignoring the look of disappointment on Genma's  
face, Ranma sat down to await one of his three favorite times of the  
day, the other two being lunch and dinner.  
  
Looking over to where his fiancee sat Ranma saw her watching the  
some news report on the television. Apparently the Sailor Senshi beat  
another monster last night and Akane, being a huge Senshi fan, was  
practically glued to the screen. Ranma snorted and shook his head in  
mild disgust at her actions, something that brought a quirked eyebrow  
from one of the rooms two other occupants.  
  
"Something wrong, Ranma-kun?" Nabiki asked amusedly at his obvious  
contempt for her little sister's fandom. It was something she found a  
bit odd about him actually, the way he always seemed to dismiss the  
Sailor Senshi as jokes or something. This in itself wasn't all that  
unusual considering his own personal skill and power, it was the fact  
that while he seemed to consider the Sailors pathetic, she had seen,  
without his knowledge of course, several issues of the Sailor V comics  
in his possession. If he was so against the Sailor Senshi, why buy the  
comics? That was a question she was still trying to figure out, and  
hoped she could goad him into answering now that an opportunity had  
arisen.  
  
Of course, her words also had the added bonus of attracting  
everyone's attention in the room, including her over-reactive little  
sister, something that was sure to bring about some major amusement  
factors.  
  
"Nothing Nabiki, just checking out the so-called "Sailor Scouts".  
Bunch of pathetic wannabe's if you ask me." Ranma said with obvious  
disgust. This remark had two effects: one was to anger Akane who, as a  
die-hard Senshi fan felt the instant need to defend her idols, while  
the other was to bring a previously unconsidered idea to Nabiki's  
mind. *Maybe he doesn't know that Sailor V is supposed to be one of  
the Senshi now. Could that be why he likes her, but not them?*  
  
"Hey! They are not wannabe's." Akane shouted, already fuming at  
the insult to the group she considered the pinnacle of what she wanted  
to become. Strong, heroic and kind, the Senshi were everything Akane  
worked towards being and it pissed her off that Ranma could so  
casually disregard them as worthy of respect. "I'll have you know  
they've saves tons of people. They're real heroes, not like some  
arrogant bakas I know."  
  
"Sure, heroes." Ranma sarcastically commented, choosing to ignore  
the obvious insult Akane had thrown at him, before continuing and  
affirming Nabiki's previous idea. "They're all just cheap Sailor V  
knock-offs. None of them could hold a candle to my V-chan."  
  
Silence was the only thing that met him after that. The kind of  
deep silence that only came proceeding Ranma saying something  
excessively stupid that would shortly come back to haunt him. The  
silence lasted until Ranma made one more quick comment.  
  
"I really shouldn't have said that." And then, all hell broke  
loose.  
  
******************************************************************  
  
Ami Mizuno loved school. This was a bit of fairly common knowledge  
amongst her friends and classmates, but not many really knew all the  
reasons behind this feeling. The obvious reason, that she merely loved  
to learn and school gave her more than ample opportunities to increase  
her already substantial knowledge, was the generally well known and  
accepted reason behind what most students considered to be rather odd  
behaviour. The reason that most people didn't realize was that with  
her mother never around due to work, Ami found her home life to be  
extremely lonely and she therefore craved the social interaction that  
school provided. Even when she was more or less friendless, before she  
met Usagi and the others, she still found it refreshing to be around  
all the people in her class. This inherent loneliness also led her to  
appreciate her friends a good deal more than most people did. She  
knew, of course, that her mother loved her, but having people around  
who treated her with caring and respect served to feed her desire for  
companionship a great deal more than the occasional meal she spent  
with her overworked parent.  
  
So it was that this level of love she felt for her friends,  
combined with her already very perceptive mind, allowed her to easily  
notice the moods her friends were in long before most other people  
did. Seeing Minako enter the classroom, early for a change, and with a  
level of cheerfulness that was a shade darker than normal led her to  
worry about what could cause her friend to be as distressed as she  
obviously(well, obvious to Ami, and probably Usagi as well when she  
got here) was. Putting down her book and standing, Ami walked over to  
where Minako was emptying her bookbag in a search for the homework  
that was due at the start of class. As she noticed Ami approaching,  
Minako put on a big smile, which, to Ami's eyes, seemed a lot more  
strained than normal and spoke up in greeting.  
  
"Good morning Ami-chan. How are you this morning?" Ami smiled at  
her in return as she stopped in front of Minako's desk and returned  
the greeting, though her smile dropped a bit in worry for her friend.  
  
"Good morning Mina-chan. I'm doing quite well, thank you." She  
answered Minako's question before moving on with one of her own. "How  
about you? Are you feeling alright this morning?"  
  
Minako gave her a bit of a funny look before smiling again and  
continuing as if nothing were wrong. "I'm feeling fine Ami-chan, why  
do you ask?"  
  
"You just seem a bit upset. Are you sure nothing is wrong?" Ami  
looked at Minako a little more carefully, noticing for the first time  
the slight bags under her eyes, which she had skillfully covered up  
with a touch of makeup, and the somewhat distant look in her eyes, as  
if her mind were somewhere else entirely. In the meantime, Minako  
studied Ami for a moment as well, as if looking to see just how much  
she noticed before sighing slightly and letting her smile drop a bit.  
  
"I'm just a little tired, Ami-chan. I had a bit of a bad dream  
last night and couldn't get much sleep afterwards." Minako confided,  
deciding that trying to lie to Ami would be more or less useless, as  
observant as she was. Seeing Ami's eyes cloud with worry at the  
statement, she quickly amended it a bit. "I'm fine though, really.  
Just tired is all. Maybe I'll take a nap through history."  
  
Her joke had the desired effect as Ami giggled a bit, attempting  
to hide it behind her hand. Minako smiled a bit more sincerely at this  
and at her friend's obvious worry on her behalf. She too had never had  
a lot of friends in her life and she appreciated having someone who  
cared that much about her. When Ami's mirth had died down, she looked  
at Minako again with a soft smile, before inquiring further on the  
subject of a dream that would cause her such problems.  
  
"Just old memories, Ami-chan." Minako replied with a bit of a sad  
smile, and a small amount of anger, which Ami hoped wasn't at her  
attempt to pry. "I'd rather not talk about it right now, alright Ami-  
chan? Maybe if you ask me later, when it's a little less fresh in my  
mind, I'll tell you about it, k?"  
  
"Alright Mina-chan. I don't want to pry." Ami replied, relieved to  
see the anger leave Minako's eyes and at the same time slightly  
worried about something that could cause any kind of lasting anger in  
her usually quick to forgive friend. "But if you want to talk about  
anything, I'll be here."  
  
"Thanks Ami-chan, I appreciate it." Minako replied, smiling softly  
once more at her friend and fellow Senshi, before Ami headed back  
towards her own desk at seeing the teacher entering the room. *Maybe  
Artemis was right, maybe I should talk to someone.* Minako thought to  
herself as she sat back and waited for class to start.  
  
******************************************************************  
  
Unsurprisingly Nabiki was the first to recover enough wits to  
comment. "Wow Saotome, I knew you were a fan but I never realized you  
were a fanboy." The comment was given with the cocky grin of someone  
who knows they caught you saying or doing something you shouldn't. It  
was a grin Ranma had seen far too many times on Nabiki's face for his  
liking.  
  
"What do you mean 'my' V-chan, you pervert?" Big surprise that the  
pervert comment was directed at him from Akane, despite the fact that  
she really didn't know why he had said what he had. Ranma had come to  
expect that from her though, she always seemed to assume the worst of  
him in situations involving the opposite gender in any way.  
  
"Oh, my son is dating one of the Sailor Senshi. How manly of him."  
Nodoka was the next to remark, with a slightly dreamy look on her  
face. *She's probably thinking of all the grandchildren she's gonna  
have* Ranma thought, seeing the smile she was wearing while giving her  
an odd look. How anyone thought cheating on his fiancee was "manly"  
was beyond him, but then so was most of what his mother thought.  
  
"Ranma, how dare you cheat on your fiancee!!" Soun's response was  
definitely predictable as he fell into his standard "you will not even  
think of anyone but my little girl" frame of mind. It amazed Ranma  
that they all seemed to instantly think he was cheating on Akane or  
something just because he mentioned another woman's name in a slightly  
familiar manner. He would have thought that with all the women who  
threw themselves at him, the fact that he hadn't cheated on her with  
Shampoo or Ukyo would give them a hint that he was honourable enough  
to be faithful, whether he wanted Akane as a fiancee or not. The only  
ones in the room who didn't automatically jump to conclusions were  
Nabiki, who was watching the carnage with an amused grin and, for  
once, his father, who knew the truth of the matter so couldn't jump to  
conclusions. It was actually his father who managed to break the  
tension that was forming by saying something that caught everyone's  
attention.  
  
"I thought I told you not to mention that woman in front of me  
again, boy." Genma ground out angrily. This had the effect of stopping  
everyone dead in their tracks and turning their attention towards him,  
which in turn had Genma wanting desperately to find a hole to hide in  
somewhere. Ranma quickly turned this to his advantage though, and  
shifted the attention firmly onto his father.  
  
"You're just upset she beat you up so often, pop." Ranma laughed,  
making Genma's face go a bit red from embarrassment. Unfortunately  
this plan backfired as everyone's eyes quickly shot back towards  
Ranma. Despite their accusations, they had all thought Ranma was  
merely a fan for Sailor V or something, none had seriously considered  
the idea that he actually knew the famous superhero.  
  
Ranma was saved having to answer any further questions, however,  
when Kasumi entered the room baring the breakfast dishes. Seeking an  
escape from everyone's attention, Ranma quickly jumped up to help her  
bring everything in, earning a smile of thank you from Kasumi and a  
growled "Quit flirting with my sister." from Akane. After breakfast  
was served, Ranma quickly began to dig in, avoiding looking at anyone  
directly, as he knew they were all looking at him.  
  
Breakfast was finished with all due haste, and Ranma was instantly  
on his feet, helping Kasumi bring the dishes into the kitchen and  
heading for the door. All the while he dodged his fiancee's glaring  
questions and Nabiki's attempted interrogations, earning a glare from  
her as well. He quickly threw on his shoes and with a call of "I'm  
off" was out the door and on his way to class.  
  
Akane immediately ran after him, yelling for him to get back here  
and answer her questions and throwing insults at him for avoiding  
telling her the truth. Nabiki just stood at the door watching the two  
of them disappear towards the school and swore to herself she'd get to  
the bottom of things.  
  
******************************************************************  
  
Lunchtime was far too long in coming in Minako's opinion. The  
morning, which went slowly enough for her on a good day, just seemed  
to drag on forever since she was so tired. To make matters worse, she  
had nodded off part way into second period and was forced to spend  
twenty minutes in the hall wearing a stupid looking sigh that said "I  
slept in class". All around, Minako really wasn't having a good day.  
When the lunch bell finally did ring, however, Minako was ecstatic.  
Grabbing her lunch, she made a quick beeline straight to the door and  
headed as quickly as she could outside to a nicely shaded tree she  
knew of. By the time her friends joined her she was already finished  
her lunch and on her way to a much needed nap so she barely noticed  
them sit down around her giving her worried looks.  
  
Just as she was beginning to doze of into a blissful rest, an  
annoying beeping sound came from just beside her. Luckily this cut off  
quickly and she resumed her attempt to sleep, ignoring the sounds  
coming from around her. At least until someone shook her awake.  
  
Opening up her eyes, she saw Ami kneeling to her side with Usagi  
and Makoto standing behind her and looking ready to run somewhere. A  
sudden dread filled her and she knew that her rest was not to happen  
anytime soon. Sighing slightly, she sat up and rubbed her eyes before  
standing and giving Ami and hand to her feet.  
  
"Daemon Ami?" She asked in a tired sounding voice.  
  
"It looks that way. I'm getting a reading of strong dark energy  
coming from a few blocks away." Ami replied seriously before getting  
an apologetic smile on her face. "Sorry, I know how much you were  
looking forward to that nap."  
  
"Don't worry about it Ami-chan." Minako replied, stifling a yawn  
before turning in the direction of a small copse of trees they could  
use to transform. "This is more important. We'll just have to finish  
it off quickly so I can get a bit of sleep in before class starts  
again."  
  
Ami smiled at this before they all headed into the trees and  
pulled out their transformation wands. Four shouted phrases and some  
very flashy transformations later, four of the Sailor Senshi ran out  
of the trees and towards the disturbance.  
  
******************************************************************  
  
"Are you sure this is the right way, Tendo-kun?" Genma asked his  
best friend as they walked down the busy street in Juuban-ku. They  
were looking for a bar that an aquantince of Soun had recommended to  
him at the last town counsel meeting and getting quite lost in the  
process. They had been wondering around for over an hour now, and  
Genma was starting to wonder if it was worth the effort as they could  
get just as drunk at the local bars. Soun had wanted to try the new  
place out however, as they always went to the same bar to drink, and  
he had agreed that a change in pace would be nice. Besides, after  
investing this much time into looking for the damned place, he wasn't  
about to give up until they found it.  
  
"I'm sure it's this way Saotome-kun. We got a bit off course, but  
we're on the right track now." Tendo answered cheerfully. Genma just  
muttered under his breath about him being related to a certain  
bandana-wearing martial artist and continued to trudge after him,  
sorely in need of a drink.  
  
Just as they were turning another corner, a loud commotion caught  
their attention and they saw a large group of people headed straight  
towards them. Ducking to the side, they allowed the panicked people to  
pass them by before looking in the direction said people had come from  
in confusion.  
  
"What do you think that was about, Saotome?" Soun asked curiously.  
Genma stared off in the distance for a moment before turning back to  
him and answering.  
  
"Whatever it is, Tendo, it's probably none of our concern." Genma  
replied before heading back in the direction they were originally  
going. Soun however started heading towards the area the crowd had  
come from, inciting a sigh from Genma. "Where are you going, Tendo-  
kun?"  
  
"Well, there could be people hurt there. As martial artists, it's  
our duty to help." Soun answered, still heading in the direction of  
the disturbance, whatever it was. Genma sighed again and replied in a  
voice that implied long suffering.  
  
"Alright Tendo, you win. Let's see if there's anything we can do  
to help." And then he too turned around and followed his friend down  
the street towards the park that seemed to be the crowd's origin. As  
they got to the park, the caught the tail end of a fight, as a girl in  
a short skirt with the most ridiculous hairstyle either had ever seen  
fired a giant heart at a monster, destroying it utterly. They of  
course both recognized the girl as the infamous Sailor moon, and  
immediately saw four other girls behind her who they assumed were the  
rest of the Sailor Scouts. When his eyes reached the one in the orange  
skirt, however, Genma's eyes widened and he froze up, his face going  
pale in fear. It was Her.  
  
He quickly began to back out of the park, his eyes never leaving  
the orange-skirted Senshi and prayed that he made it out before she  
noticed him. His prayers went unanswered, however, as she turned  
briefly in his direction before staring at him, eyes wide and mouth  
hanging open slightly. Her face then fell into a deep scowl of hatred  
and he could only think of one word to sum up the situation.  
  
"Shit."  
  
******************************************************************  
  
Minako stood back as her princess finished off the latest enemy,  
this one a ridiculous looking half woman, half vending machine that  
called itself "vendor" of all things. She sometimes wondered why it  
was that all their enemies had to be such stupid looking things before  
reminding herself that regardless of how dumb they looked, it was how  
strong they were that mattered; and these particular ones were strong.  
As the broken vending machine fell to the ground, releasing its daemon  
egg, she took a moment to survey the damage. *Not bad as far as our  
fights go. Not too much damage at all.*  
  
Her eyes were sweeping over the park when they fell across a  
disturbingly familiar figure. She shook her head and looked again, but  
the large bald man in the dirty dogi was still standing there,  
watching her intently and edging towards the entrance to the park.  
Their eyes met briefly and she saw him freeze up before she fully  
accepts whom she is seeing.  
  
"Genma" She whispers, her eyes widening appreciatively. Her face  
then falls into a deep scowl of hatred and she screams out loud enough  
to catch everyone's attention.  
  
"GENMA!!"  
  
To Be Continued....  
  
  
Author's Notes: My God. Two separate stories. Wow, one would almost  
think I'm being productive. This is my first attempt at a Sailormoon  
crossover, so if I'm doing anything horribly wrong, just pretend it  
didn't happe..........er, point it out so I can fix it. That's what I  
meant, honest.^_^  
Continuity: this is somewhere in the middle of S, and near or at the  
end of Ranma(hasn't been completely decided yet, but it's not really  
relevant yet.).  
Send all C&C to ranikkoku@hotmail.com  
Bob Lobster 


	2. Memories and Revelations

Hell Hath No Fury  
A Ranma/Sailormoon Crossover  
By: Bob Lobster  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma. I don't own Sailormoon. Don't you have  
someone with money to bug?  
  
  
Chapter 2: Memories and Revelations  
  
Genma Saotome was scared. Unlike his son, Genma had no trouble  
admitting this.....to himself at least. He'd never even consider  
admitting any fear to the Boy, but he knew when he was scared. Very  
few people could truly scare him either. The Master was one of them,  
as was The Old Ghoul, as his son called her. His wife's katana had the  
ability to scare him quite easily actually, but that was more the idea  
of what she carried it around for. The girl in front of him right now  
scared him. She scared him badly. He wouldn't admit that one to  
anyone, he even had trouble admitting it to himself, but he knew it  
was true. Just about everything about her scared him. Her speed,  
almost on par with his son, scared him. Her strength, which last time  
they met was better than Ranma's, scared him. Her strange powers  
terrified him. Most of all though, that look she was giving him, the  
one that said, "I've found you and you are so dead", that look scared  
him like no other. So it was no particular surprise that rather than  
face her down, Genma did what he does best.  
  
"Run for it Tendo!" Genma ran. Genma ran hard and fast, as fast as  
his legs would take him, straight back the way he'd come from and out  
of the park entrance. Not even once did he look back to see if his  
friend was following him, after all, she had no reason to attack Soun,  
it was only Genma she seemed hell-bent on killing. If only his good  
for nothing son were here to fight her off, like he always did before.  
Hell, the Boy even seemed to enjoy it, wandering around with that  
goofy grin on his face after every encounter of theirs.  
  
Diving around the corner the first thing Genma did was call upon  
the Umi-Sen-Ken. Sure, he had sealed the techniques, but that was  
really only to keep the more dangerous aspects of the Forbidden  
Techniques for being used. A simple invisibility technique wasn't  
dangerous in the least, so he saw no real reason not to use it.  
Besides, if it got him away from that damned Sailor V, than it was  
completely worth the effort.  
  
After making sure the cloaking technique was in place Genma was  
about to peek into the park to make sure that Tendo had gotten away  
alright when the Sailor V tore out of the entrance, stopping no more  
that ten feet away from him. Genma held his breath and started tip-  
toeing away from her, keeping as silent as possible in order to avoid  
detection. It wasn't until he saw her scream in frustration and walk  
back into the park that he let out a sigh of relief and ran down the  
street, jumping to the nearest roof top in order to make it home  
quicker. He didn't drop the technique until he was safely across the  
boarder into the Nerima ward.  
  
"Soun, old friend, I sure hope you made it out alright." He said  
to himself as he headed home, suddenly no longer in the mood for the  
bar.  
  
*********************************************************  
  
Usagi had just finished off the enemy and was about to suggest  
they head back to class when suddenly she heard Minako shout. Quickly  
scanning around to see what had caused her to scream like that Usagi  
silently prayed to her mother that it wasn't another enemy. She was  
still tired from dealing with the last one after all. She was  
understandably surprised then, when rather than a big, stupid looking  
monster(she just couldn't think of those things as scary, they were  
far too ridiculous) she saw a big, stupid looking man. The fact that  
he looked absolutely terrified wouldn't have surprised her if it  
weren't for the fact that she had already beaten the monster. What  
else was there to be scared of? That question was answered quite  
quickly when he shouted out for his friend, some tall older guy with  
long hair and a mustache *I think he called him Tendo.*, to run for  
it. He then turned around and ran from the park as fast as he could,  
with Minako right on his tail and his friend staring stupidly at his  
back.  
  
Sweatdropping, Usagi glanced over at her friends only to see them  
staring at the retreating Venus just as confusedly as the mustached  
man. Shaking her head to remove the quickly forming headache, she  
walked rapidly over to the remaining man, who still had a wide-eyed  
expression, and tried to get some answers from him.  
  
"Umm, excuse me?" Usagi began. Then tried again as that seemed to  
get no effect. It actually wasn't until the third, and subsequently  
loudest "excuse me" that he began to snap out of his trance. At that  
point a loud shriek came from just outside the park and they all  
looked to the entrance just in time to see Sailor Venus running back  
in, looking madder than Rei had been when Usagi accidentally tore one  
of her manga, and heading straight for the man she had been attempting  
to speak with.  
  
When she reached the mustached man, she didn't stop her forward  
motion but rather grabbed him by the front of his brown dogi and  
hauled him off of his feet. This in itself was quite an impressive  
site, considering he was about a foot taller than she was, and it  
managed to completely snap him out of his state of confusion.  
  
*********************************************************  
  
Minako was not having a good day. First she dreamed of Him, making  
certain that she got very little sleep all night. Than, just when she  
was about to fall into a nice, comfortable nap some stupid daemon came  
along and she had to waste her entire lunch hour fighting the damned  
thing. To top it all off, she spotted that bastard Genma and was about  
to reign some divine retribution down upon him, and that fat coward  
managed to escape from her. So utterly pissed off was she that she  
barely noticed the fear and confusion in the other man's eyes as she  
lifted him off the ground by his collar. All she knew for sure was  
that Genma had called this man by name, so he must know something  
about him. If he knew about Genma then chances were he might know  
about his son as well. And if he knew where they happen to live then  
maybe she could finally have her revenge. Staring him straight in the  
eyes, Minako gave him her best glare, the one she usually saved for  
Him, and began with a simple question.  
  
"Are you going to answer all my questions promptly, or do I have  
to kill you, slowly and painfully?" At least it was a simple question  
for Soun to answer anyway. His eyes widening in fear, not only at the  
threat but that fact that she was holding him well off of his feet.  
Not trusting his voice, reluctant as he was to have his voice crack  
from fear of a child, he just nodded quickly instead. The fierce look  
in her eyes told him that she was definitely capable of following  
through with her threat, and he silently wondered what his friend had  
done to her to make one of the cities premiere heroes that angry at  
him.  
  
"Good boy." Minako said easily. Her glare eased off some and Soun  
slumped slightly in relief, seeing that she no longer seemed quite so  
intent on eviscerating him. In fact, now that he had agreed to answer  
her questions, she seemed downright pleased with herself. This turn of  
events allowed Soun to regain some small amount of his confidence,  
though he was still nervous in front of someone his friend, and  
admittedly better in the Art, would run from in terror.  
  
"That......man, that just ran from here, Genma was his name, but  
I'm a little curious as to his clan name. You know it, correct?" Once  
more Soun nodded, a little happier to see her questioning didn't seem  
to involve torture in any way. When he remained silent however,  
Venus's face began dropping into a frown once more, before she finally  
lost her patience with him completely. "Well, what the hell is it?"  
  
"Sa-Saotome." Soun stuttered out, embarrassed that his voice  
cracked as it did, but unable to maintain the level tone he would  
prefer. He noticed that her ire washed out quite a bit at his answer,  
seeming mollified at getting real answers. Soun just hoped to himself  
that she didn't ask anything that he may not know the answer to.  
  
*********************************************************  
  
Ami was getting rather concerned for her friend. It was true that  
Minako had been acting different all day. She had seemed tired and  
moody, but never did Ami believe that Minako would react to anyone the  
way she had to the man in the dirty white dogi. Ami had not believed  
it possible for Minako to act that act that way towards anyone who  
wasn't a marauding, energy-draining monster or some equally dangerous  
fiend. It made her wonder just what the large man had done to deserve  
such rage directed at him from her normally calm, if somewhat flighty  
friend. And then to have her terrorizing the man's friend, as was  
evident by the look on his face, no matter how much he attempted to  
hide it. All in all, the shock left her in such a frame of mind that  
she actually missed some of the conversation happening. She brought  
herself back to reality in time to hear her friend muttering the man's  
name to herself(She'd have to remember to research this "Genma  
Saotome" herself later to see what she could find out about him)  
before turning back to the man to continue her "interrogation".  
  
"Genma Saotome." Minako strung the word out, as if tasting it to  
see if it was right, yet still managed to make it sound as if it were  
the foulest insult imaginable. "This Genma Saotome, he has a son, a  
son about sixteen years old with rather long black hair, pulled back  
into a pony-tail. You know of him, correct?"  
  
By now, the lack of any more hostility on Venus's part had given  
Soun a good deal of his courage back and allowed him to look at the  
scene before him in his usual manner, skewed perceptions and all. At  
this point several things ran through his mind as it tried valiantly  
to come to some sort of logical reason he was being hoisted off of his  
feet by one of the city's premier defenders. The first thought was  
that Genma had upset the girl in some way; not surprising really,  
Genma upset a lot of people, it was one of the few talents he had  
completely passed on to his son. The second was that Genma ran in fear  
quite quickly from said girl, something that usually occurred only  
when he was faced with a situation of his own making in which he had  
made certain obligations he had no intention of living up to. The  
third observation he made, and the one that brought it all together,  
was that the girl seemed rather interested in Genma's son. All these  
thought led to a single conclusion which, in his twisted way of  
thinking, made perfect sense and led him to burst out with one of his  
usual lines.  
  
"You can't have Ranma," He shouted at her so suddenly that  
Minako's grip on him almost faltered. "He will marry my Akane!"  
  
"Ranma...........So, his name is Ranma" This was not quite the  
results he had expected when he had formulated the argument in his  
mind. She wasn't reacting in any way as he had planned for. Don't  
Ranma's fiancees normally argue and yell and hit people when someone  
contested their right to marry Ranma. While he could have done without  
the hitting part, the rest would have at least been somewhat  
reassuring in that he'd know he was on the right track with his  
assumptions, now he wasn't quite so sure. She didn't even seem to  
notice anything after he had stated the boy's name, and the way she  
had repeated it sent shivers down his spine. Her voice had been so  
cold, not dead but like a cold fire burning in hatred. Again he  
wondered what had happened to cause animosity such as this.  
  
Again Ami worried for her friend. She had never heard a tone like  
that come from the blonde's mouth. Normally she was very emotional  
about all subjects, but the way she said the boy's name, it sent  
chills up her back and made her very sorry for this "Ranma" whenever  
Minako caught up with him. The girl in question seemed to shake  
herself out of the daze she had entered upon hearing her target's name  
and focussed back upon the man in front of(and slightly above) her.  
  
"This.......Ranma, would you happen to know where he lives?"  
Minako asked in a sweet tone, the one that all daughters know turns  
their fathers to mush. Soun was a bit sentimental for a moment as the  
look brought back memories of when his daughters had used such looks  
on his. These days Kasumi never really asked for anything, Akane just  
got angry if he didn't do something and Nabiki.......well, you just  
didn't cross Nabiki. For a moment the sheer cuteness of the look  
almost got to him faster than the fear he held for her had. His  
family always came first however and his protectiveness of his family  
was enough to shake him from his stupor.  
  
"I'm sorry, young lady, but I can't tell you that." Soun stated  
with a firmness that surprised most of the Senshi. They had watched  
the man turn into a quivering mass, willing to answer any question  
with just a look from Venus, and now the man had a look of fierce  
determination that would not be denied. Minako started a bit at the  
sudden change in the man's attitude, but quickly regained her  
composure and brought her glare to bare on the man once more. He  
gulped a bit under the look but held his ground, something difficult  
to do in his position six inches above it. Finally Venus relented  
slightly, impressed despite herself that Soun had stood up to her thus  
when his friend would have been groveling at this point(and had  
several times in the past before He.......Ranma bailed him out.). In  
respect for his new found courage, she lowered him back down so that  
his feet once more rested completely on the ground, but didn't release  
her hold on his dogi top.  
  
"Why, exactly, can't you tell me where he lives?" She asked in her  
sweet voice once more, though it was strained slightly by the  
frustration of being so close to her target, yet being held up by this  
man's refusal to provide a location. She was sure that she could find  
Ranma's location on her own(with a little help from Ami anyway) now  
that she had a full name for him, but that would take time and having  
him so close had made her somewhat impatient to finish what they had  
begun so long ago.  
  
"I'm sorry, but Ranma is staying with me at the moment, and I  
can't allow any more people to start barging in, looking for revenge  
against him." Soun said, proud of himself for sticking up for his  
family and putting his foot down to someone who frightened him so  
much. It wasn't easy to admit that he was afraid of a girl who was  
only the age of his youngest daughter, but the level of power he could  
sense from her and the girls with her was rather significant. Even to  
his admittedly weakened senses(lack of recent training tends to do  
that) they glowed like virtual bonfires, putting even heavy hitters  
like Ranma to shame in shear power. However, he knew that his family  
couldn't afford any more people tearing their home apart, so he did  
what he had to do. "We have enough people disturbing the peace of our  
home as it is. If you wish to challenge Ranma, please do it elsewhere  
besides my house."  
  
Minako looked at him with a bit of shock, actually releasing her  
hold on him. Not at the thought of there being so many people out to  
get Ranma, someone as mean-spirited as he was would attract plenty of  
people carrying grudges, no she was shocked that someone who could act  
so forceful and seem so honourable could have a place for scoundrels  
such as Ranma and his pig of a father. He seemed sincere in not  
minding her attacking Ranma though, so she respected his wishes and  
didn't press further for information of Soun's home. Instead she  
turned her attention back to how she could find her wayward target.  
Soun was happy enough to tell her that Ranma attended Furinkan High  
School(he was feeling a lot better about the girl now that she wasn't  
choking him for not answering) and wish her luck in her pursuit of  
him, so long as she was only looking to challenge him. Seeing that she  
no longer seemed intent on him, Soun decided that that was his time to  
make a discreet exit, turning and hastily, though not quickly enough  
to seem like he was fleeing, heading toward the exit. As soon as he  
rounded the exited the park gate and rounded the corner, he allowed  
himself to fall to his knees and do what his pride, meager as it was,  
had refused to let him do in front of the Senshi: he wept like a  
little girl.  
  
Minako let him go, having already obtained all the information she  
needed from him, and was already lost in thoughts of revenge on a  
certain pony-tailed boy. Images of her standing over him while he  
begged her for mercy flashed through her head and she began laughing  
maniacally to herself. Behind her, the rest of the Senshi watched  
uncomfortably as one of their number appeared to fall into madness and  
wondered what had just occurred. Well, they stood there until Ami  
noticed that they only had five minutes to get back to class, at which  
point they were forced to shake Minako out of her rather demented day  
dreams (Makoto was elected to approach her as they were all still  
slightly freaked out by her behaviour). As they ran back towards to  
school, Rei breaking off part way, as her school was in another  
direction, Makoto finally decided to break the ice and ask the  
question on all of their minds.  
  
"What the hell was that all about, Mina?" Makoto all but shouted  
as she raced beside Minako towards the school gates. She really didn't  
like not knowing what was going on, especially when her friends were  
involved. Makoto had grown up alone, her parents having died when she  
was very young, and as such she valued her friends very highly. She  
was thus very protective of them. Right now, something was seriously  
wrong with Minako, that much was easy to determine from her reaction  
to the first man and her subsequent treatment of the other, and she  
hated not knowing the cause. So, if she was a little short with  
Minako, that was just her worry and frustration coming to the surface.  
  
"Huh?" Minako elegantly replied. She then noticed that her three  
friends were staring at her rather hard and realized that they were  
probably wondering about her behaviour. She had to admit that Ranma  
and his father seemed to bring out the worst in her, though she  
attributed this to them both being low-lives that the world would be  
better off without. Looking around at her friends, she really didn't  
want to have this conversation right now so, with a heavy sigh, she  
promised that she would tell them all about it after school, on their  
way to Nerima. This caught them all by surprise, but they let it go  
seeing as she had promised to fill them in. They would just have to  
wait a little while.  
  
Makoto hated waiting. It was going to be a long day.  
  
*********************************************************  
  
*It's been a long day. * Was the thought running through Ranma's  
head as the bell rang signaling the end of school for another  
afternoon. He was truly looking forward to getting out of class and  
away from some of the people in his life, particularly Akane and  
Nabiki. Nabiki hadn't been so bad, since she had a different classroom  
than Ranma, but he knew that would change as soon as she was able to  
corner him. He had only barely escaped her at lunch. Akane on the  
other hand sat in the desk right next to his and had been insufferable  
all day. Not only was she still angry at him for putting down her  
idols, the Sailor Senshi, she was also upset that he seemed to have a  
relationship of some sort with yet another girl. All in all, it led to  
a day of her either glaring at him hatefully or ignoring him all  
together and he wasn't looking forward to whatever conversation they  
would have when she finally managed to get ahold of him for a moment.  
  
Quickly getting up from his desk, Ranma headed for the window  
(Akane being between him and the door) and leapt for it, hoping he'd  
be able to lose any pursuers that way. Just as he believed he was in  
luck, however, he landed and, turning to face the gate for a quick  
getaway, had to stop short to avoid running Nabiki over. Sighing to  
himself, he decided there was no point in avoiding the conversation  
any more and got to the point quickly.  
  
"Alright Nabiki, whada ya wanna know?" He asked, knowing that  
attempting to match wits with Nabiki would be futile. He only hoped he  
could convince her to leave Akane out of their little soiree since he  
really didn't feel like dealing with any strange conclusions she could  
draw right now.  
  
"You've been avoiding me all afternoon, Ranma, I should be upset  
over that. However, as you seem to have finally come to your senses,  
and I can tell that this is going to be an interesting story, I'll let  
you get away with it this time." Nabiki smirked at his look of relief.  
Knowing that Big, Bad, All-Powerful Ranma worried about her reactions  
to things always gave her a rather substantial ego boast and this time  
was no different. However she put off thoughts like those for the more  
immediate concern of getting then away from her volatile little sister  
so that she could get the whole story out of him. "Well, we'd better  
hurry if we want to get out of here before Akane arrives. I don't know  
about you, but I'm pretty sure that you won't have much time to talk  
if she's around."  
  
Ranma smiled a bit, realizing that Nabiki wanted to talk to him  
alone, rather than forcing him to deal with Akane, and silently  
thanked her for the reprieve she was offering. Even if it meant  
telling her what was going on, at least he didn't have to deal with  
any jealous fiancees.  
  
"Alright, where to then?" He asked, wondering where they could  
have this conversation in peace.  
  
"I'm feeling a bit hungry, how about that new Indian restaurant in  
town? Your treat of course."  
  
"Of course." Ranma drooled out, not really having expected  
anything else, despite her vastly superior funds. They turned and  
quickly exited the school grounds then, making it around the corner  
just as Akane burst out of the front doors and consequently managing  
to lose her as she incorrectly guessed their destination to be the  
Dojo.  
  
*********************************************************  
  
Four girls gathered around their friend as she began to head in  
the direction of the bus to Nerima. They had waited the entire  
afternoon, some more patiently then others, for an explanation and  
were eager to hear what Minako had to say. They held their collective  
tongues however, as she seemed to be deep in thought, and waited for  
her to begin. It was, afterall, Minako's story and they couldn't  
verywell force it out of her. No matter how much Makoto wanted to.  
  
After a few minutes of walking in silence, meeting up with Rei  
shortly, Makoto finally reached the end of her patience. Waiting  
through class was unavoidable, but now, with Minako right there, she  
really wanted to know what was going on. From the way she had reacted  
to the man in the park, Makoto half expected this to be some sort of  
enemy that Minako had met during her Sailor V days that was coming  
back to haunt her now and if it was she wanted to be ready for it.  
Sailor Senshi stuck together afterall. Before she had a chance to  
voice her thoughts, however, Rei managed to beat her to the punch.  
  
"So," Rei began, trying to keep her impatience from showing up in  
her voice. This looked something that really bothered Minako and she  
wanted to know what it was so that she could help. "Are you gonna tell  
us what's going on, or what?"  
  
Makoto sighed to herself as Rei's futile attempt to control her  
temper failed due to her rather limited patience. Though Makoto was  
sure she was trying to ask Minako in a kind and understanding voice,  
Rei managed to make the question into a demand for answers none the  
less. At least, if nothing else, it did seem to get Minako's attention  
away from whatever internal brooding that she was experiencing.  
  
Minako looked around at her friends as they reached the bus stop  
and awaited its arrival. Looking around to make sure that they were  
alone Minako sighed before glancing at her friends once more and  
beginning her tale.  
  
"I guess you all want to know about what happened today. I  
probably freaked some of you out a bit." At several vigorously nodding  
heads, most noticeably that of Usagi, Minako chuckled lightly before  
continuing. "It all comes down to something that happened when I lived  
in England, while I was still Sailor V. I'd only been at it for about  
a month when I first met Him."  
  
The rest of the Senshi could almost feel the capitol letter at the  
start of 'Him' and wondered what that meant. The way Minako said the  
word, you could practically feel the hatred and resentment in the  
word, but at the same time a certain amount of respect had to be  
present in order for her to speak of this person with the sort of  
reverence implied by the use of such a formal 'Him', even if it was  
only the grudging respect awarded to a particularly strong opponent.  
Most of them thought that this 'Him' was probably the man who had  
originally set off Minako's wraith, this Genma fellow, although at  
least Ami thought back to the way all of Minako's questions seemed  
rather to revolve around the man's son, rather than the man himself.  
  
"He was around my age and seemed to be staying in the London  
area." Minako continued, but was quickly interrupted by Makoto.  
  
"Was he cute?" She asked. Now Makoto knew that her friend  
obviously didn't like whoever this boy way, but she figured that it  
might help lighten the mood a bit if they discussed to boy's looks a  
bit. Then perhaps Minako would be a bit less moody for the rest of the  
story. Discussing cute guys was, afterall, one of Minako's favorite  
hobbies.  
  
If anything, however, her mood seemed to darken a bit as she got a  
far away look in her eyes. "Oh yeah, he was cute alright. Long black  
hair, deep blues eyes, a great build and enough grace to make a dancer  
cry," Now she had all the girls' deepest attention. Afterall, Minako  
had just described a guy that would normally have her head in the  
clouds and she seemed to be projecting even more malice instead. "But  
he was also rude, mean-spirited, and cruel-hearted. He made a game of  
making my life miserable at every turn."  
  
"Surely it couldn't been that bad, Minako-chan?" Ami asked  
hesitantly. She knew that her friend had a tendency to be overly  
dramatic, but not usually in such a dark, spiteful way. She tended to  
be more high-spirited and flighty than that.  
  
"You have no idea." Minako answered. "Let me tell you about the  
first time I met Him. It was late and I was just finishing my rounds  
are Sailor V when I saw someone sneaking out the window of a local  
church....."  
  
*********************************************************  
  
"Alright Ranma, start spillin' and leave nothing out." Nabiki  
requested in a voice that assured Ranma that it wasn't a request. They  
were sitting in a small booth in a fairly well decorated restaurant  
whose decor obviously was meant to convey the message that you were in  
India and surprisingly conveyed it rather well. The waiter had just  
left with their orders, which, Ranma was thankful, were less costly  
then he believed they would be. It seemed Nabiki did have some  
appreciation for his financial situation afterall. Well, either that  
or she knew that he'd just have to borrow money from her to pay if  
they ordered anything more expensive. Reflecting, Ranma decided that  
the later was far more likely than the former seeing as, as much as  
Nabiki was not the money-grubbing mercenary that most made her out to  
be, she was still pretty quick to spend other people's money if they  
offered.  
  
"Well," Ranma began, figuring it would be better to just get to  
the point since not only would Nabiki get the whole story from him one  
way or another, he really felt he had nothing to hide. Afterall, he  
was only talking about a friend of his from when he was younger. "What  
exactly would you like to know?"  
  
"I'd say that's fairly obvious, Ranma-kun." Nabiki said with a  
smirk. "But we'll start with the basics, shall we. Do you actually  
know Sailor V personally? Not just seen her on TV, or watched one of  
her fights, but actually know her to the point where she would  
recognize you."  
  
"Of course I know her, Nabiki." Ranma replied, somewhat offended  
that Nabiki seemed to put him in the 'obsessive fan-boy' category.  
"You should know me well enough to know that I don't give people nick-  
names often. The only ones I have are friends from when I was younger:  
U-chan, V-chan, and Ka-chan."  
  
"How very original, Ranma-kun." Responded Nabiki drolly, before  
she got a slightly confused look on her face. "Wait, Ka-chan? Then  
again, nevermind. One problem at a time." Ranma shrugged slightly at  
this and waited for Nabiki to continue. "Alright then, how did you  
meet?"  
  
"That's kind of a long story, but I guess I'll start at the  
beginning. Pop and I had traveled to England in order to train with an  
old master Pop had before he trained under Happosai."  
  
"You went all the way to England to train under someone?" Nabiki  
interrupted confusedly. She had always been under the impression that  
China was as far as the two had ever gone.  
  
"Myazaki-Sensei made a really big impression on Pop and he really  
wanted me to learn under him as well. I guess when Pop learned from  
him he lived in Osaka, but he had moved since. It was one of the few  
times Pop actually sprung for plane tickets somewhere. I guess the  
idea of walking to England appealed to him about as much as it did  
me." Ranma stopped for a moment as the waiter brought their drinks.  
Thanking him and then taking a sip, Ranma waited until he had left  
again before continuing his story. "Anyway, so we were in London to  
see Myazaki-Sensei, but we arrived kinda late the first night and  
decided to camp out in a local park. While I was setting up the camp,  
Pop said he was going to pick up supplies. Frankly that should have  
tipped me off a bit since I knew we had everything we'd need for a  
while, but it was late and it took me a bit longer than usual to  
become suspicious of where he was. The first places I checked, of  
course were the places he had paid closer attention to on our way in  
since he always does that to look for possible hits."  
  
"Wait, hits? I know your dad's a bit of a con man, but you make  
him sound like a professional thief or something. He wasn't really  
that bad, was he?" By now, Nabiki was starting to wonder if she was  
really so off about Genma. She had always known he was a degenerate,  
but she'd never believed he was a real thief. Ranma's laugh brought  
her back from her contemplation.  
  
"Are you kidding, Nabiki? How did you think he kept us supplied  
all those years? Do you really think he would have stopped my training  
long enough to get a job? I never liked how he did things, but I don't  
really hold it against him. He was just keeping us fed afterall."  
Ranma stated before chuckling a bit and continuing. "And he was a hell  
of a thief. He could steal the cash out of a man's hand without him  
noticing if he wanted. Unfortunately he'd usually do something stupid,  
or someone would get lucky and see him and we'd have to move.  
  
"Well, it turned out someone got lucky a lot earlier than usual  
and it wasn't someone he would have expected. He had just finished  
robbing a local church when..."  
  
"A church?!" Nabiki practically screamed out the word, though she  
was actually more surprised at Ranma's casual attitude towards Genma's  
actions than the actions themselves.  
  
"Yeah, respect for religion was never a big thing for Pop. You get  
used to it after a while. This time, when he was just climbing out the  
window into an alley he ran into Sailor V. I guess he didn't take her  
seriously, because she managed to catch him off guard with one of her  
magic blasts and take him down. That's how I found them, so I, of  
course, jumped to his rescue."  
  
"You attacked a *girl* to save your father?" Nabiki looked  
thunderstruck at this one. Not only did it blow the whole 'Ranma never  
fights girls' thing out of the water, he also did it to help his dad,  
someone he barely respects. She was going to need to totally rethink  
her opinion of Ranma after this.  
  
Ranma didn't even think before answering. "Well, yeah, did you  
think I was gonna let my only way home get chucked in jail? Besides,  
why would I want to give up prime gloating material like that?" Ranma  
smirked a bit and Nabiki chuckled at the thought of Genma getting beat  
up by a tiny slip of a girl. "Anyway, I jumped in to rescue his fat  
ass, and got in a fight with Sailor V. Of course, I had her outclassed  
right off, but she fought really well and though she didn't seem to  
have much training, she had enough speed, strength and experience to  
make up for it. It was impressive to see how long she managed to keep  
her cool no matter what taunts I threw at her."  
  
"Wait, you taunted her? Like you do with Akane?"  
  
Ranma seemed confused for a moment, but answered her none-the-  
less. "Of course. I always do, you know that. It's part of Anything  
Goes, to make the enemy to angry to think straight and fight  
properly." He shook away his momentary disbelief that Nabiki didn't  
know one of the prime tenets of the Anything Goes and continued his  
story. "Anyway, once she lost her cool, I finished it pretty quickly  
and took off with Pop, but we meet up quite a few times after that.  
She always seemed pretty eager to fight me, but I guess that you don't  
come across challenges like me very often. I always fought her to the  
best of my ability of course, though I would make sure the fights kept  
going until I managed to get her to lose her cool. It was always fun  
to see how long she would last."  
  
"Let me get this straight, Ranma-kun. You would meet up with her  
every once in a while, throw insults at her until she got sloppy with  
rage and then beat her up? And you wonder why she kept attacking you?"  
Nabiki was staring at Ranma rather incredulously at this point. *Even  
he couldn't be that dense. * She thought to herself, before realizing  
this was the same person that who had though Ryoga was his best buddy  
after all the times he'd taunted him. Now that she thought about it,  
this was actually a remarkably similar situation to what had happened  
between him and Ryoga. In fact, if Sailor V had any qualities in  
common with Ryoga, Ranma would be lucky if she didn't still hold a  
grudge against him.  
  
"Oh come on, I didn't exactly beat her up, it was just friendly  
sparing like Ryoga and I do. Besides, she knew it was all in good  
fun." Ranma said, once more reassuring Nabiki that, yes, he was that  
dense.  
  
"Sure thing, Ranma-kun." She replied while wondering to herself  
what the discussed Magical Girl thought of their so-called 'friendly  
sparring'.  
  
*********************************************************  
  
The other scouts all stared at Minako with looks of shock on their  
faces as she finished up the story of her and Ranma's first meeting.  
They had stopped only briefly to get on the bus, moving quickly to the  
back and making sure that no one else was in hearing range before  
continuing.  
  
"He...he left you disabled and laying in a pile of garbage?"  
Makoto barely managed to get the words out as she wondered what that  
would be like for someone as young and inexperienced as Minako was at  
the time. She had held up well during the entire story, barely showing  
any emotion as she told them about the things he had said and done,  
but they could easily see the emotions in Minako's eyes as she drudged  
up her memories from that time.  
  
"Yup," Minako said, smiling weakly at them, "You can imagine it  
didn't do well for my self-esteem."  
  
Ami remained the most collected during the whole story (Usagi had  
actually gone to tears near the end, but they calmed her down quickly  
enough) and was the first to ask the most logical question. "Surely  
just that one instance wasn't enough to keep you angry for this long  
though. I'll admit it sounds pretty traumatizing, but it was over two  
and a half years ago."  
  
Minako chuckled a bit at that, but the sound held very little  
mirth in it. "Oh, no, that wasn't the only time. As I said, that was  
just the first time I met him. We fought quite regularly after that. I  
did have to bring his father to justice afterall, it's not like he  
quit stealing, and...Ranma...always seemed there to defend him." She  
seemed to hesitate at the mention of the name, as if she was still  
adjusting to having a name for her own personal nemesis. "It got to  
the point where I would just attack him on sight, not even bothering  
with his father, since I knew I would have to fight him anyway."  
  
"They....they didn't all end like that, did they?" Usagi asked in  
a weak voice. "I mean, that was the worst of them, right?"  
  
Minako seemed to go deep in thought for a moment before answering.  
"Well, I didn't end up in the trash very often, if that helps, but I  
never did get the better of him." She then frowned, recalling some of  
their fights. "He always managed to find ways to humiliate me though.  
There was the time..."  
  
*********************************************************  
  
Ranma was fighting Sailor V on the roof of a factory, trading  
blows at a pace fast enough that it would be hard to follow by anyone  
watching. If there was one thing he had always admired about her it  
was her speed, which was only slightly less than his own. She put that  
speed to good use now as she fought him for possession of his father,  
who had been robbing the factory next door when she showed up. Ranma  
thought it was kind of funny that he always seemed to find his Pop  
just before she could manage to drag him off to the slammer, but he  
didn't complain about his strange luck as he really enjoyed the fights  
he had with her and didn't really know any other way to find her. She  
seemed to get better with every match, absorbing any advise he offered  
(though often getting angrier as he criticized her) and managing to  
hold her temper a great deal longer through his taunting. Speaking of  
which...  
  
"You call that a kick? Put those huge hips of yours into it, or  
you'll never manage anything." He yelled, and was satisfied to see her  
slightly correct her kick while at the same time coming a little  
closer to losing her cool completely. She seemed to be visibly  
trembling now, though she was still keeping it under control. A bit  
more though, and she'd be gone. This, of course, meant that Ranma had  
to add a bit more. "There ya go, now if you could just get that Jell-O  
mold you call a butt into it a bit more, you'd have a beautiful kick."  
  
Ranma was rewarded for his comment by a scream of fury and a sight  
that he always cherished: an opponent in a blind rage. V tore towards  
Ranma with new speed, almost surprising him at the shear velocity, but  
with none of the skill that had previously made up her form. She was  
swinging with strong but unfocused blows now, her anger making her  
predictable, allowing Ranma to easily avoid all her blows while  
getting her in position to finish the fight.  
  
He dodged around her wild punches for a time, giving ground until  
he was exactly where he wanted to be and then jumping back slightly,  
getting out of her reach and forcing her to rush at him to catch up.  
As she rushed forward, Ranma leapt straight up, pushing off of her  
head and propelling her forward while not allowing her the chance to  
halt her momentum. This action caused her to fall straight throw the  
skylight, broken by one of her earlier attacks (she always used her  
magic attacks first, before really getting into the fight, on the off  
chance she managed to tag him.) and plunge into the large vat situated  
directly below it.  
  
Ranma stood there for a few moments admiring his handy-work as  
Sailor V struggled to right herself in the large vat of fish leftovers  
from the processing plant they had been fighting over. When he was  
sure that she wasn't going to drown in fish guts (if she had breath  
and energy to throw a string of profanities at him, she could easily  
make it to the edge) he gave her an exaggerated bow and a jaunty wave  
before running off to join his father, hoping that the fat bastard  
hadn't already started on his dinner.  
  
Meanwhile, Sailor V made her way to the edge of the vat, tears of  
fury running down her face, screaming words that would make a drunken  
sailor blush and swearing bloody vengeance on him.  
  
*********************************************************  
  
The sailor's were staring incredulously at her now. Thinking that  
he humiliated her not once, but twice in such a fashion, they were  
beginning to understand why she was still so upset about it.  
Unfortunately, Minako wasn't quite done yet.  
  
"And then there was the time..."  
  
*********************************************************  
  
Ranma chuckled to himself as he stared up at the incapacitated  
Sailor V who was screaming bloody vengeance at him from her rather  
unusual position. She was hanging upside down from a fire escape where  
the metal was wrapped around her feet in such a way to have them  
spread out somewhat, making reaching them difficult. Had she not been  
as angry as she was, Ranma had no doubt that someone of her  
flexibility would have no trouble getting out of such a position but  
then, had she not been as angry, he never could have got her in such a  
position in the first place.  
  
Staying a little longer than usual to admire his handy work (one  
couldn't blame him for staying as her skirt was flipped up giving him  
a nice view and he was an adolescent boy afterall) he was able to hear  
a great deal more of her vast vocabulary of curses as she swore  
vengeance on him next time she saw him. Ranma merely saluted her once,  
declaring a merry "Until next time then, V-chan." And then he was on  
his way, leaving Sailor V to her latest humiliation.  
  
*********************************************************  
  
"Although, one of the worst was probably...."  
  
*********************************************************  
  
Ranma stood back and admired his handy work. He hadn't really  
planned on anything like what he'd done, but after insulting his  
mother, she deserved something a little special. You don't insult a  
man's mother, it just isn't done. So, while he knew he'd gone a bit  
overboard that time, he couldn't help but laugh at the shocked and  
angry look on V's face as she laid on the ground in front of him.  
  
*Although, I'm sure I'd be shocked too if I'd been hog-tied with  
my own outfit. * Ranma thought to himself as he grinned down at the  
struggling girl in front of him. *Bet she didn't even know those  
ribbons came off. *  
  
He whistled to himself while he walked away, a satisfied grin on  
his face as he listened to the incoherent mumbling of the bound and  
gagged Senshi. He'd really outdone himself that time.  
  
*********************************************************  
  
"I didn't even know the ribbons came off." Usagi commented in  
astonishment as Minako finished up her story. They were walking away  
from the bus stop, having arrived in Nerima, and heading in the  
direction of the school hoping that Ranma would still be in the area.  
  
"Well, trust me, they do." Minako replied with a grimace of  
distaste. "And the cloth is a bitch to break."  
  
"Well, it is magically enhanced afterall." Ami said almost  
mechanically, a look of bewilderment on her face. "I somehow doubt the  
creators ever thought they'd be used against us like that. How did you  
get out of that, by the way?"  
  
"I said they were hard to break, not impossible." Minako said,  
smiling slightly. "I eventually managed to get my arms free, and the  
rest was easy."  
  
Makoto was thinking over all that Minako had told them and she had  
to agree that the boy in question did sound like he needed to be beat  
into the ground. Surely, though, they were only getting one side of  
the story here. He couldn't be anywhere near as bad as Minako was  
claiming. "Are you sure he's that bad a guy, Minako-chan. I mean, it  
has been a long time, maybe he regrets what he did to you."  
  
*********************************************************  
  
Ranma laughed at a memory of one of his fights with V-chan. He'd  
been telling Nabiki about a few of his encounters with her and he  
couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of the look on her face when  
he had hog-tied her like that. Wiping a tear from his eye, Ranma  
looked up to see Nabiki staring at him in shock.  
  
"You....you hog-tied her with her own ribbon?!" She shouted at him  
in disbelief.  
  
"Yeah, that was a particularly proud moment for me." Ranma said  
with a sigh. "You should have seen the look on her face." He then  
broke out in giggles again (though he would deny ever giggling as a  
guy if asked later).  
  
"But....but you hog-tied her! With her own Ribbons!!" Ranma  
frowned a bit; Nabiki seemed to be stuck on that point for some  
reason. It wasn't like he hurt her or anything; he just tied her up.  
  
"It's not like it hurt her. I knew that once she calmed down she'd  
be able to get out fairly easily, she was easily strong enough to  
break the ribbons." Ranma took another bite of his dinner, a mild  
buttered chicken which he decided he'd have to get again sometime,  
before continuing. "Besides, she should never have brought my mother  
into it. You can make fun of Pop all you want, cause he deserves  
anything you throw at him, but you just don't insult a guy's mother.  
It's not done."  
  
Nabiki just sighed and began eating her food again. After a few  
moments of eating in silence, Nabiki urged Ranma to continue his tale.  
  
"Well, there wasn't really much else. We fought a lot over the  
three months I was there, but eventually I finished my lessons under  
Myazaki-Sensei and it was time to leave." Ranma seemed to consider  
something for a few moments before adding, "That and the police  
finally got together a decent sketch of Pop from all the jobs he was  
pulling, so it was time to leave anyway."  
  
"So that's it? You just up and left, never seeing her again?"  
Somehow it seemed a little too anti-climatic for Ranma's life.  
  
"Pretty much, yeah. Pop decided it was time for us to leave, so I  
didn't really have much choice but to follow him. I went out the nigh  
before we left, hoping to at least say goodbye, but I never saw her. I  
haven't seen her since." Ranma's mood seemed to drop at this, but  
Nabiki figured that he missed having a friend around. She ideally  
wondered if Sailor V realized what Ranma thought of her or if she  
rejoiced when she never saw him again.  
  
Realizing that they were done dinner, the two of them got up and  
headed for the counter where Ranma paid for their meals. They then  
headed out into the street and began walking in the direction of the  
Dojo before Nabiki turned to him.  
  
"Well, thanks for the story, Ranma. It's been rather enlightening,  
if somewhat unexpected. I'm going to leave you here though, I have  
some business to take care of." Nabiki turned and headed off down  
another street, leaving Ranma to head back to the Dojo alone.  
  
*********************************************************  
  
"We're not gonna find him, Minako-chan. Why don't we just come  
back another day and try his school again. Maybe over lunch or  
something." Rei was beginning to tire of walking around in circles as  
they had been for the last half-hour. Not that she didn't appreciate  
her friend's desire for vengeance against someone who had wronged her  
so, but she had homework to do and wanted to be able to get to bed  
before midnight.  
  
"I guess you're right." Minako agreed with a sigh, her eyes  
scanning the crowd on the street again. "I'll just have to come back  
tomor......It's Him!!"  
  
Her friends' heads all whipped around to see the boy in question  
and assumed correctly that it was the rather handsome one walking  
along the fence top. He was wearing a red Chinese shirt and black  
pants and had his long hair pulled back in a pigtail. Makoto couldn't  
help thinking bitterly about how unfair it was that the cute ones were  
always the bad guys.  
  
Suddenly, hearing Minako's transformation phase behind them, the  
rest of the Scouts all turned quickly, catching the end of her  
transformation into Sailor Venus. Usagi was quick to jump in front of  
her however, restraining her from going after Ranma. The other three  
quickly helped in restraining the errant Scout.  
  
"What are you doing?" Venus practically screamed at them. "He's  
right there!"  
  
"You can't just run out there and attack someone Minako-chan."  
Usagi said while keeping herself between Venus and her target, knowing  
Minako would never use force against her. "Even if you are enemies,  
he's not doing anything wrong right now."  
  
"Usagi's right Minako-chan. Besides, you're not thinking straight  
right now." Ami added in, trying to convince her friend not to rush  
out and attack someone for no apparent reason in front of dozens of  
witnesses. That's the last thing their reputation needed. Since no one  
else would know her reason, they would all just assume she was at  
fault. "You're tired and angry right now. Why don't you go home and  
get some rest and we can come back when you're thinking more clearly."  
  
Minako looked at the faces of her friends, concern and caring  
shining in there eyes, and then at the form of her hated enemy, making  
his way down the street behind her. She visibly sagged before  
answering. "You're right, Ami-chan. We'll just come back tomorrow,  
after I get a good night's sleep. I'll be feeling better the...Oh My  
God, What The Hell is THAT?!?"  
  
Minako's eyes shot wide, surprise and horror etched on her face as  
she stared into the street behind the scouts, causing them all to jerk  
in the direction of her stare to see what had surprised her so.  
  
Even as her head was still turning, Ami groaned, seeing exactly  
what she expected. The street was empty of anything except a few  
people walking by them. Turning back towards her friend, she wasn't  
surprised to see Venus running quickly towards the boy on the fence  
while yelling out a line that the people of Nerima were very used to  
hearing.  
  
"Ranma Saotome, Prepare to Die!!"  
  
To Be Continued...  
  
Author's Notes: Wow, for those of you who didn't think I could finish  
a chapter two.......frankly, neither did I. But I surprised myself and  
managed to pull this off. Now, on to chapter three, which should be  
out.......someday!!  
As always, I'm open to suggestions on how to fix this up and make it  
better. C&C is not only welcomed, but heavily encouraged. Hell, I'll  
even accept flames, cause they're fun to read.^_^  
Send any comments to ranikkoku@hotmail.com and check out my site at  
www.geocities.com/ranikkoku  
Thanks for reading.  
Bob Lobster 


	3. Of Entrances and Exits

Hell Hath No Fury  
A Ranma/Sailormoon Crossover  
By: Bob Lobster  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma. I don't own Sailormoon. Don't you have  
someone with money to bug?  
  
  
Chapter 3: Of Entrances and Exits  
  
Ranma was walking along the chainlink fence, heading home from his  
dinner with Nabiki and somewhat forced trip down memory lane when a  
slight tingle in the back of his neck, a subtle raising of the hairs  
that he had grown rather accustomed to recently, warned him that he  
was about to be attacked. Spreading his senses out, he 'felt' the area  
around him for any sign of hostility and discovered a strong, yet  
strange feeling, power source approaching rapidly from behind him. He  
then heard a phrase, which had become so common around him since  
arriving in Nerima that Nabiki was actually selling T-shirts with it  
printed on them.  
  
"Ranma Saotome, Prepare to Die!!" The voice was unfamiliar, though  
it struck a slight chord in his memory, but the words were so familiar  
as to actually be slightly reassuring after the stressful day he had  
just had.  
  
Staying still for a few moments, Ranma allowed his nameless  
advisary to hold onto the belief that she(even with his back turned,  
it was a rather simple matter to judge gender from the pitch of the  
voice, although he had been fooled in the past) had the advantage of  
surprise. It always surprised Ranma that his opponents seemed to  
believe that they could yell death threats at the top of their lungs  
and still expect to catch him off guard when they attacked. He wasn't  
sure if it was that they were stupid, or that the enemies they were  
used to fighting were stupid but they always seemed surprised when he  
managed to escape their sneak attacks. Personally, he liked to believe  
that they were just giving him an advanced warning so that they could  
have a more fair battle, however he knew that was just his optimism  
talking and the chances of it being true were pretty slim.  
  
Once he determined that his attacker was close enough to have  
fully committed to their attack, Ranma leapt off the fence, arcing  
almost twenty feet off of the ground, incidentally allowing the girl  
attacking him to fly under him, before landing on the sidewalk beside  
the fence. His respect for the girl he was apparently fighting rose  
slightly when, rather than falling in the canal as he had expected her  
to, she managed to grab ahold of the fence with one arm and halt her  
forward momentum. The action bent the fence in towards the canal,  
annoying Ranma slightly in that he wouldn't be able to walk on it  
until it was fixed, but also managed to allow the girl to stop her  
attack and pull herself back in his direction. With a surprisingly  
graceful flip, considering the circumstances, she was back on solid  
ground and facing him again, allowing Ranma to get his first good look  
at his unexpected attacker.  
  
She was quite beautiful, that much was very easy to determine,  
with flowing blonde hair, and long, barely covered legs, which caught  
more than just Ranma's attention. Her mode of dress easily identified  
her, with her white leotard-like body suit, short, orange skirt and  
blue ribbons, as one of the vaunted Sailor Senshi. This, in itself,  
should probably have put Ranma on edge, as they were rumored to be  
quite powerful and also should have had him at least wondering why she  
was attacking him. Such thoughts, however, fled his mind quickly upon  
taking in her entire appearance when he realized exactly who she was.  
The woman standing before him was Sailor Venus, the one Senshi who  
Ranma really hated. The others were tolerable, if pathetic, in their  
attempts to emulate his V-chan. They, at least, had their own  
identities, and only used Sailor V as an influence, an inspiration in  
their choice of costume and name. This one, however, wasn't content  
with that. Sailor Venus took the entire matter to an extreme, copying  
everything from her poses, to her hair style, seemingly attempting to  
take all of Sailor V's following, now that Ranma's friend had  
mysteriously vanished from the crime fighting scene. Ranma wasn't  
fooled by appearances, though, whoever this girl was, she definitely  
wasn't his V-chan. For starters, her costume was all wrong, Sailor V's  
costume being closer to the Senshi's leader, Sailor Moon's. That  
wasn't the deciding factor in his mind though. The thing that really  
proved it to Ranma was Sailor Moon herself. The Sailor V Ranma knew  
was strong, experienced and fiercely independent; the Sailor V he knew  
would never allow someone as obviously inexperienced as Sailor Moon  
act as her leader. In fact, it was Ranma's opinion that the appearance  
of frauds like the Sailor Senshi that cause V-chan to retire in the  
first place. Just something else to dislike them for.  
  
Having identified the aggressor, and decided that he disliked her  
enough not to question why she was attacking(afterall, it was bound to  
be something along the lines of "You've ruined my life!" or "How dare  
you run out on our engagement!" and, frankly, Ranma thought he was  
better off not knowing.) Ranma began his tried and true icebreaker at  
the start of any fight: he taunted her.  
  
"Woah, nice try there." Ranma began as he watched his opponent  
size him up from where she was just entering a stance. He was  
impressed, despite himself, at her well-balanced stance, indicating  
some training. This, however, was offset by her obvious lack of self-  
control, evidenced by the rage burning in her eyes. He decided to see  
how far he could push that before she blew, though he didn't think it  
would take long considering her obvious agitation. Putting on his best  
smirk, he continued putting his most practiced conversational skills  
to good work. "So, any reason yer attacking me, or is it just that  
time of the month?"  
  
He smiled as she began to practically vibrate in her rage, before  
the smile dropped from his face as she visible, though seemingly  
forcibly, relaxed. She then took up a pose, which made Ranma silently  
seethe in anger as it was very obviously stolen from Sailor V.  
  
"I'm the Pretty Soldier, Sailor Venus, and for years of mental  
trauma, I'm gonna kick your fucking ass." Venus smiled viciously at  
that and got back into her favoured stance, allowing the frown that  
creased Ranma's face to calm some of her boiling anger. Unfortunately,  
between the stress that she'd already endured during the day, and the  
exhaustion she was feeling from her lack of sleep, she was finding it  
more and more difficult to keep her cool before her hated enemy.  
  
Deciding that the longer she stared at him the better chance that  
she'd loose her temper like she used to, Minako used his momentary  
pause to launch herself at him in a blazingly fast straight punch,  
pouring all her speed into finishing the fight quickly. Luckily for  
Ranma, he had never actually let his guard down, being far too used to  
his opponents attempting to use surprise against him, and he easily  
dodged to the side, redirecting the punch and ducking under the  
follow-up spinning back-kick. He jumped back as she finished up with a  
thrusting sidekick, gaining himself some space to re-evaluate his  
opponent. That attack had been extremely fast, and fairly skillful in  
execution, though her lack of control over her temper was easily  
showing as it dulled her reactions enough to allow him to easily evade  
all her attacks. He had no doubt she could be better, but her  
inability to manage her anger left little doubt in his mind that she  
was about as much a real martial artist as Akane was.  
  
"Wow, impressive." Ranma managed in as innocent a voice as he  
could manage. "A bit faster and you could probably match an old lady I  
know. Don't feel too bad about her beating you though, she's pretty  
mean on that cane of hers."  
  
Internally grinning, Ranma managed to retain his innocent look as  
Sailor Venus began to shake, her hands clenching tightly into fists as  
she tried to maintain both stance and concentration. Knowing that she  
was just one push away from going over the edge, Ranma smiled brightly  
at her before really cranking up the Saotome charm and continuing in a  
cheerful voice. "Of course, you've still got a long ways to go to  
catch up with her in other areas. But don't worry, looks aren't  
everything, after all."  
  
*********************************************************************  
  
The rest of the scouts stood on the sidewalk, still in civilian  
form, watching as their teammate attacked a seemingly innocent and  
admittedly rather cute young man. All of them were feeling extremely  
foolish after falling for such a simple ruse, though none more than  
Ami, as she felt that she should be far too intelligent to trick in  
such a manner. Tricked she was, however, and now she had to content  
herself with standing at the sidelines with the rest of her friends  
and watch as Minako shattered their reputation by attacking someone,  
for no particular reason, in broad daylight, on a fairly busy street.  
If the Senshi had a PR agent, he'd be having a coronary right now.  
  
Thinking for sure the flying kick Minako began with would kill the  
poor boy, Ami was suitably surprised when he leapt over the attack and  
landed as if jumping twenty or thirty feet was nothing. Intrigued by  
the power required to make a jump like that, she pulled her computer  
out and quickly set it up to take some readings while she did some  
quick calculations on the amount of force he had just exerted. Amazed  
by her results, Ami was about to bring it to her friend's  
attention(though they no doubt wouldn't appreciate it as much as she  
did) when Minako made her entrance speak, shocking her so much she  
almost dropped her computer.  
  
"Did....did she just say...what I think she did?" Usagi asked at  
her side, mouth agape and voice a bare whisper.  
  
"Wow." Rei managed in a quiet, subdued voice, her surprise  
rendering her nearly speechless, something Ami didn't think possible.  
"I didn't even know Minako knew that kind of language."  
  
The others, Ami included, only managed weak nods at that  
statement. The fact that Minako knew words like that didn't surprise  
Ami so much, she had spend quite sometime fighting criminals before  
joining the rest of them in fighting the monsters they tended to take  
on all the time, so it wasn't surprising that she would have heard  
things like that all the time. The fact that she had used such insults  
at anyone, even an enemy, was what had Ami floored. This was the same  
girl who had been know to complain about her "virgin ears" when Makoto  
said things that weren't even half so offensive.  
  
Of course, that was when Minako choose to attack, and they could  
only stare on with awe. None of them could remember any of them moving  
that fast, ever. The exchange was short, but they could all see the  
astounding level of skill Minako displayed, despite the ease at which  
her target evaded her attacks. It made Ami wonder what Minako's skill  
would be like if her anger and lack of sleep weren't dulling her  
somewhat. Whatever she was missing from fighting tired, she was still  
fighting at a level Ami couldn't recall ever seeing her at before,  
which brought up the question of exactly how the boy was even keeping  
up, let alone evading her with what looked like ridiculous ease. Was  
he even human? It made her very glad she had turned on her computer,  
the results of its scans would be very interesting indeed.  
  
Ranma than opened his mouth and commented on Minako's speed and  
Ami could practically feel the raise in temperature as the fragile  
hold Minako had on her temper began to break down. It was with a  
surprising insight that Ami realized what was happening. In fact,  
after the way Minako had described Ranma, making him out to be some  
sort of evil demon who's only goal was to insult and humiliate her, it  
came as an extreme shock for Ami when she realized the reason he was  
insulting her like he was. It was such a shock that she said it out  
loud, and quite a bit louder than she had intended. "He's goading her.  
He's trying to make her mad."  
  
"Of course he is. He always does that." The voice came from beside  
her, shocking her out of her reverie and attracting her attention,  
along with that of her friends, to the pair of boys a little ways from  
her, watching the fight. They were watching the fight with interest,  
to be sure, but at the same time there seemed to be a sort of  
familiarity in their eyes and ease in their stances that spoke volumes  
of the normalcy of the situation before them. It was as if they saw  
people fighting at this level on a daily basis. The one who had  
spoken, the one with dark hair as opposed to his fair-haired  
companion, glanced in her direction quickly before turning back to the  
fight once more, although Ami could swear that his eyes were more on  
Minako's legs than the fight itself.  
  
"What do you mean, he always does it?" She asked politely,  
attempting to get more information out of an apparent source. Perhaps  
the boys would even know how this Ranma person was able to do the  
things he did.  
  
"It's the way Ranma starts all his fight." The boy responded,  
glancing back once more, seeming to consider her for a moment, before  
returning his eyes to the fight and continuing. "I asked him why once  
and he said it was part of his school. You know, make 'em angry enough  
to get sloppy and then finish 'em off. I think he almost takes pride  
that he can piss anyone off enough to send them into a blind rage."  
  
Ami stared at the boy as he chuckled for a moment at his own  
statement. It made sense, far too much sense. It was a very solid  
strategy to win a fight. When your opponent got angry, they tended to  
get sloppy, reducing all their skills to blindly swinging. The boy  
then continued. "And it looks like he's managed it this time, too."  
  
Ami's eyes shot back to the fight as Minako screamed in rage and  
ran at the boy, swinging wildly in an attempt to tag him. All of her  
former skill disappeared as she degenerated into a style of attack  
that even Usagi would be able to dodge, though her speed was still  
incredible. All Ami could do is stare forward as her friend became a  
wild beast, anger flowing off of the normally happy girl in waves that  
Ami could practically feel from where she was. She tried to say  
something to the boy next to her, but all she could manage was a soft  
"Oh my." at the sight.  
  
The boy chuckled a bit at her surprise, as if he had fully  
expected a famous super-hero to be reduced to a raging madwoman before  
his eyes. He then commented, with a bit of humour in his voice. "Yeah,  
he's impressive, isn't he?"  
  
At this point, his fair-haired friend spoke up. "I'm kinda  
disappointed. I expected one of the Sailor Senshi to last longer than  
that. Even Ryoga doesn't break down that quickly, and he's got the  
quickest temper I've ever seen."  
  
The first boy seemed to think about that for a moment before  
responding. "True, but she looked pretty pissed when she arrived.  
Ranma's dad probably screwed her out of something at some point in the  
past and now she's here for revenge. Besides, I think Ryoga's getting  
used to Ranma's insults, it takes a lot longer than it used to for him  
to lose it these days."  
  
"True, he has been calmer." The fair-haired boy responded, before  
continuing. "Ranma's dad probably engaged them or something and then  
ran out with the dowry."  
  
The dark-haired one laughed out loud at that comment, making Ami  
stare at him in confusion. How could anyone consider such a thing  
funny? She'd be horrified if it happened to her, yet they talked about  
it like it was an every day thing. It was making her head hurt. "Heh,  
she'll be added to the fiancee squad by the end of the day. Lucky  
bastard, now he's even got a Sailor Senshi after him."  
  
"Looks like Ranma's gonna end it." The comment from the second boy  
caused Ami to swing her head around just in time to watch the tail end  
of the fight, far more questions on her mind then she started with.  
  
*********************************************************************  
  
Ranma was getting bored. As much as he enjoyed taunting her into a  
rage like he had, it was far too easy to do. Just another reason why  
she was nothing like his V-chan, he supposed. She would never have  
allowed herself to fall for his taunting that quickly. By the time he  
had left she was able to ignore his insults for longer than most other  
people Ranma had ever met, while this girl had falling into a rage  
within the first couple insults. It was pathetic, really.  
  
It also reduced their fight to Ranma dodging her as she swung  
powerful, yet horribly unskilled punches at him. She was so easy to  
predict at this point that he was able to almost ignore her attempts  
to hit him and allow his instincts to guide him, putting most of his  
attention on keeping her in her present state by allowing the odd  
comment to slip out.  
  
"Geez, is that the best you can do? I know little old men who can  
kick better than that."  
  
"Wow, you almost got me with that one. Another ten feet closer and  
I may've been in trouble."  
  
"Note for next time. If yer gonna come out in public in that  
outfit, lay off the Twinkies."  
  
"Oh! Is that thunder? Wait, sorry, that's just yer thighs."  
  
"ARRRRRRRGHHHHHHH!!!!" Ranma grinned happily and silently  
congratulated himself as his opponent turned a rather unhealthy shade  
of purple at that last comment. He decided to himself that she'd  
suffered enough and it was time to end it. He didn't think it was  
possible for anyone to get much angrier than she was now, so taunting  
her wouldn't be much fun after this point. Deciding on one final  
humiliation, he led her in the direction of the bent point on the  
fence where she had first attacked him. Maneuvering her so that she  
was facing the canal he waited for her to attack him. He didn't need  
to wait long.  
  
Screaming in rage, Venus charged at him swinging with what looked  
like a particularly powerful right hook. Just as she was about to  
connect, Ranma grabbed the fist and dropped backwards, planting one  
foot on her stomach and rolling onto his back. Unable to stop her  
momentum, Minako's eyes widened with surprise and she was shocked out  
of her rage at the feel of Ranma's foot pressing into her abdomen  
moments before he pushed off, sending her flying high over his head  
and behind him. He rolled to his feet, turning to face her just in  
time to watch with satisfaction as she sailed over the broken fence,  
just high enough so she couldn't reach it for support, and landed with  
a huge splash in the water below. Sauntering over to the edge, he  
smirked down at her surprised and angry eyes for a moment before his  
face suddenly turned serious.  
  
"Consider this a lesson for you and all your little Sailor V-  
wannabe buddies." He began, his voice as serious as his expression,  
causing the anger in Minako's eyes to turn into complete shock. "Next  
time you decide an' impersonate a great fighter, start by learning how  
to fight."  
  
With that, Ranma turned and walked away, leaving a shocked and  
staring Sailor V sitting in waste deep water, unable to think of a  
single thing to say.  
  
*********************************************************************  
  
The girls all watched Ranma walk a few feet before leaping up onto  
the roof of a nearby house and making his way from roof to roof until  
he was out of sight. Once they could no longer see him, they ran over  
to the fence to check on Minako, followed closely, though at a slower  
rate, by the two boys they were speaking with before. Looking down  
into the water they saw Venus still sitting in the water, staring at  
the point Ranma had been standing with a vacant expression on her  
face. She stayed that way for a few more moments, before slowly  
standing up and leaping up to the street. The two boys moved towards  
her, asking about an autograph, but she ignored them and quickly ran  
from the scene, a bit unsteadily at first but quickly gaining speed,  
in the direction of Juuban. Ami hoped that her friend was already, she  
had looked so dazed when she left, but she knew that she couldn't talk  
to her now. She resolved to go see Minako as soon as she got back to  
Juuban herself. For now though, she wanted to know what the hell was  
with those two guys.  
  
"Well, pay up, man." The dark-haired one said, grinning a bit at  
his friend. The second boy grumbled about unfairness, but reached into  
his pocket and withdrew his wallet. Pulling out several bills, he  
handed them over to his grinning companion, who merely counted them  
happily. "Oh, quit grumbling Hiroshi, that's what you get for betting  
against Ranma. You should know better by now."  
  
The second one, Hiroshi, sighed, seeming to deflate somewhat  
before replying in a dejected, yet resigned voice. "Yeah, I know,  
Daisuke but, I mean, it was a Sailor Senshi. I thought she might've  
had a chance on grabbing the first win. You know, before Ranma trained  
and kicked her ass in the rematch."  
  
"Wait. You were BETTING on them?!" Makoto asked in astonishment.  
In Juuban, when the Senshi were involved in a fight people generally  
did the sensible thing and left the area in a hurry. That people  
actually stuck around here was surprising enough, but that they were  
comfortable enough with the fights to actually wager on the winners  
was incomprehensible to her. Not to mention that the two boys both  
immediately dismissed the chance that the Senshi in question would  
actually win the fight, they just assumed that this Ranma would win,  
if not now than in a rematch. What the hell was with this town?  
  
"Well, yeah." Daisuke said, sounding confused that anyone would  
even suggest otherwise. "What else would you do at a fight? Although,  
you get better odds if Nabiki or her lackey's are around to take bets,  
but it looks like they missed out on this one. She's gonna be pissed."  
  
At this point Ami decided to get back into the conversation,  
wanting to steer it back towards finding more information about Ranma  
himself. The last thing they needed at that point was another name to  
keep track of, this was confusing enough already. "You seem awfully  
sure Ranma would win. Why is that? I mean, the Senshi are pretty  
powerful, you know, and the one he fought didn't even use her  
attacks."  
  
Hiroshi smirked a bit as Daisuke took on what he liked to call his  
"professor" look, the one he saved for filling outsiders in on the  
happenings of Nerima. "We knew Ranma'd win because he always wins in  
the end. The only real question is whether he'll take them the first  
time or get too cocky and get caught off guard. It happens from time  
to time, but he always gets them in the rematch."  
  
Hiroshi decided that that was his cue to add in his two cents,  
getting the girl's attention by continuing where Daisuke left off.  
"The Senshi may be powerful - I mean, they take on those monsters in  
Juuban so they'd have to be pretty tough - but Ranma's taken on guys  
stronger than him before and, somehow, he always wins." He smirked a  
bit before continuing, knowing what their reaction's going to be to  
the next part. "There's even a rumor that he beat a god while he was  
in China about a month ago."  
  
The reactions were exactly as expected: a mixture of surprise,  
astonishment and, most prominently of course, disbelief. Hiroshi left  
Daisuke to pick up the next part, which he did perfectly. "Of course,  
it's just a rumor since Nabiki doesn't know what happened for once and  
Ranma refuses to say anything. He just clams up tight whenever anyone  
mentions the incident and you can't get a word out of him. Something  
bad happened there, god or not, and it took a real toll on him. None  
of us would be overly surprised if it was true though, not with the  
things we've seen him do."  
  
"Wh...what have you seen him do?" Ami asked, shaken despite her  
best efforts at the thought of a boy who could very well end up their  
enemy being strong enough for his friends to think that defeating a  
god wasn't a stretch. The thought of fighting someone that strong sent  
her stomach into knots and she really hoped that Minako could sort out  
her differences with him without involving the rest of them. Not that  
she truly believed the god story, but after watching him fight and  
easily defeat the most experienced of them as if she were a rank  
amateur, it didn't seem like such a big stretch of the imagination.  
  
"Oh, just little things mostly." Hiroshi began, allowing them to  
relax slightly, internally smirking at how much fun it was to play  
with outsiders, before continuing in as innocent a tone as he could  
manage. "You know, like jumping two or three stories."  
  
"Or throwing around boulders the size of small cars." Daisuke  
threw in.  
  
"Or creating tornado's out of nowhere."  
  
"Or when he fought that giant eight-headed dragon."  
  
"And that giant minator thing that shows up from time to time. You  
remember, Dai, the one with the wings."  
  
"And tentacles, he picked up tentacles."  
  
"Oh, yeah, he did, didn't he. Then there's those energy blasts he  
and Ryoga throw around all the time. Those are pretty cool."  
  
"Yeah, I like those. Especially when Ryoga made a thirty-foot  
crater with one. That was awesome."  
  
By now Ami's head was absolutely spinning. She glanced over at her  
friends to see what they thought and felt a bit sorry for Usagi. She  
obviously believed everything the two were telling them since she'd  
gone pale, probably thinking about what he could do to Minako. Makoto  
had a look of interest on her face, mixed liberally with a bit of awe  
and a good deal of disbelief, while Rei looked like she was ready to  
laugh out loud at the ridiculousness of the boys' claims. That thought  
was immediately confirmed when she did laugh out loud, disrupting the  
two's thoughts as they argued over something to do with chestnuts,  
before addressing them.  
  
"You don't actually expect us to believe all that crap, do you?"  
Rei managed once she had stopped laughing. "I mean, come on. He just a  
normal guy, how could he do all that stuff."  
  
The two guys looked at each other, getting an expression on their  
faces that just screamed out their amusement at the whole situation.  
They seemed to agree on something and turned back, Hiroshi speaking  
for them. "Well, you don't have to believe us, we're just some random  
guys on the street. If you really wanna know the truth though, you  
should see Nabiki Tendo. She's got pictures, video, the whole nine  
yards and she knows nearly every story there is to tell about Ranma."  
  
"Just tell her Hiroshi and Daisuke sent you and she'll tell you  
whatever you wanna know." The two smiled in a friendly sort of way and  
Ami had a bad feeling that they really were telling the truth about  
what they said. Then they both bowed a bit before Daisuke continued.  
"Unfortunately, we have to go. It was nice meeting you though and if  
you're ever in town again, look us up and we'll give you the tour." He  
then winked at Ami, causing her to she blushed prettily, before they  
both turned and began walking away, talking to each other about  
Ranma's newest fight and the chances of a Senshi joining the ranks of  
Ranma's fiancees in the near future, leaving behind four very confused  
and slightly worried Sailor Senshi.  
  
*********************************************************************  
  
By the time Minako made it home, she had once more pushed past her  
confusion at Ranma's words and embraced the anger that came from his  
various insults. It was, after all, much easier to stay made at the  
bastard than to think about they way he seemed to actually be  
defending her honour at the end. It'd probably been more effective  
defense if he hadn't been defending her from herself, but that didn't  
make the whole situation any less confusing. Not that one comment  
could stop her from hating the asshole, but it certainly threw a  
wrench in the whole "mortal enemies" thing that her enemy didn't hate  
her as much as she once though.  
  
Although, it was probably just a matter of respecting a  
particularly strong opponent. After all, she respected him on some  
levels. Sure she hated him with a passion, but she couldn't not  
respect someone who was that good at what he did.  
  
Turning her thoughts once more from those matters, her mind  
quickly went back to the insults he threw at her and she began to  
simmer once more in indignation. *Thunder thighs my ass.* She thought  
to her self as she pushed through the door, grunting irritably at her  
father when he yelled out a greeting. *I have perfect legs. After all,  
guys wouldn't stare at them so much if they weren't nice.*  
  
Making her way upstairs, quickly telling her father that she was  
tired and was going to go take a nap when her inquired about her bad  
mood, she headed into her room, only to be greeted by a worried  
Artemis. She smiled at him, though he could easily tell it was forced,  
and walked over to her bed, plopping down face-first in the sheets  
before he could say anything. Artemis hopped up on the bed beside her  
as she turned over on her back and plodded onto her stomach, settling  
down and letting her pet him a few times before saying anything.  
  
"You alright, Minako-chan? You look upset." He spoke gently and  
waited patiently as she stroked his back a few more times before she  
spoke up. She didn't get into these moods very often, but when she did  
it was usually something bad and with her dreams last night, the best  
he could do for her right now was be as comforting as possible.  
Finally she opened her eyes up and looked at him and he felt a shiver  
of dread run down his spine.  
  
"I met up with Him today." She said, causing the bottom to fall  
out of Artemis' stomach as the implications of her statement sank in.  
If she'd met Him, then He was staying in town somewhere. Which meant  
they would most likely meet again in the near future, possibly causing  
a repeat of the situation of two and a half years ago. With her  
present mood, it was also rather easy to tell that she hadn't defeated  
Him as she had wanted to since the first time they met, meaning she  
would probably be searching Him out on a regular basis until she could  
best Him. Also, given how much stronger she'd gotten over the last few  
years, for Him to still be able to beat her meant that He had gotten  
immeasurably better over the time apart. Frankly, present day Minako  
would be able to stomp the boy she knew all those years ago so the  
idea that He could still beat her scared Artemis more than he was  
willing to let on. This was supposed to be a normal, human boy after  
all. A lot stronger and better trained than most, he'd admit, but  
still human. To be able to defeat a Senshi in one on one combat  
without magic aid was thought to be impossible, yet here was a boy who  
did it on a regular basis.  
  
Artemis kept all these thoughts silent for now and focused on  
getting Minako to talk about what happened. "I...I see. What  
happened?"  
  
"Can we talk about it later, Artemis? I'm really tired right now.  
I just wanna sleep for a while, alright?" Minako's tone was slightly  
pleading and Artemis was quick to give in. He knew that she hadn't  
gotten much sleep last night and between the attack at lunch and the  
business with the boy she was probably pretty worn out. Besides, he  
knew that she'd talk to him when she was better rested and he was  
certain that she'd come out of the experience alright this time. After  
all, she didn't have her friends around last time to help her through  
it. Perhaps she could even get their help in dealing with Him,  
although he doubted she would ask. She really wanted to beat Him on  
her own, even just once.  
  
"Alright, Minako-chan, you get some rest. We'll talk about it  
later." Minako smiled a bit at him before thanking him quietly and  
closing her eyes once more, casually stroking him down the back from  
time to time as she quickly fell into a deep sleep.  
  
*********************************************************************  
  
The four Inner Senshi made their way down the quiet street towards  
Minako's house, talking with each other in hushed voices. During the  
trip back to Juuban they had discussed, when there was sufficient  
privacy to do so, all that they had learned today about their friend's  
rival. Though they remained divided on the validity of the two boy's  
words, they were all in agreement that, whatever his true strength,  
Ranma was one person they didn't want to face if it could be avoided.  
Usagi was still the most against fighting him, believing everything  
that Hiroshi and Daisuke had told them, not seeing any reason for them  
to lie. More than anything, though, she wanted to make sure that  
Minako wasn't hurt by him at any point, since she seemed pretty  
determined to continue fighting him. Rei was still at the other end of  
the spectrum, believing that the two were merely trying to have fun  
with a few gullible people, such as Usagi, she pointed out, by seeing  
what they could make them believe. Makoto was happily fence sitting,  
believing that whatever else, Ranma was an amazing martial artist and  
someone she'd much rather learn from(or date, though she didn't say  
that out loud) than fight.  
  
Ami, having talked with the two more while the fight was happening  
than the others, wondered whether Ranma was really as bad a guy as  
Minako made him out to be. She could obviously see that he wasn't  
exactly a pleasant person to fight, those insults must have really  
infuriated her friend and she didn't blame her, but his insults seemed  
more to the point of getting her angry than being out of any sense of  
malice. She also noticed that, despite how much Minako seemed to hate  
him, Ranma seemed to hold Sailor V as someone he respected greatly.  
This could, of course, be the respect one feels for a strong rival,  
but it didn't feel that way when he spoke. It felt more like the  
respect one holds for a revered friend.  
  
Having reached the gate to Minako's house, Ami shook herself out  
of her thoughts and joined the others in heading for the door. Partway  
there, she looked up towards Minako's window, wondering if their  
friend had even come home right away, and saw Artemis looking down at  
them. Ami stopped, causing the others to halt their forward motion,  
before beckoning Artemis to come down so they could talk. He stepped  
out the open window and leapt to a nearby tree, using it to climb down  
to ground level before walking over to the group and jumping into  
Ami's arms. The four Senshi headed towards the front of the house,  
where they could talk without gaining too much notice. Once there, Ami  
was the first to break the silence.  
  
"Artemis, did Minako-chan make it home alright?" Though Ami asked  
the question she knew the answer already. Artemis wouldn't look as  
worried as he did if she hadn't come home yet. Obviously he knew  
something of what had happened and, since he had been with her during  
her Sailor V phase, he no doubt knew the significance of her meeting  
Ranma. He probably knew a great deal more than they did regarding the  
matter, actually. Before he could answer her first question she  
quickly tacked on another. "Can we talk to her?"  
  
Artemis sighed sadly, his head dropping a bit at thinking about  
the situation, before turning his eyes back up to Ami. In an almost  
resigned voice he answered her. "She made it home, but she collapsed  
into bed almost as soon as she was in the door. She sleeping now and I  
don't think it would be best if anyone disturbed her right now." Ami  
had to agree with that, Minako had been awfully tired earlier and was  
no doubt feeling even more so after her fight. Artemis glanced around  
at all of them, seeing their questioning looks and continued, asking  
the obvious question. "You were all there, I take it? When she meet  
Him?"  
  
Ami smiled reassuringly at Artemis. It was obvious the situation  
had made him uneasy, which was understandable given Minako's past  
relationship with Ranma. She ran a hand over his head, hoping to set  
him a little more at ease while she considered what to say. "Yes, we  
were all there when she met Ranma." This caused Artemis's head to  
shoot up, startling Ami slightly at the suddenness.  
  
"Ranma? His name's Ranma?" He seemed to mull this over for a few  
moments as if fitting the name to whatever image he held of the boy.  
He nodded to himself once, seeming to accept the name as belonging to  
his ward's rival, before turning his eyes on Ami again. "Did she find  
out his last name, as well?"  
  
"Yes, his name is Saotome." She saw Artemis go deeper in thought  
for a moment and waited for him to pull himself out again before  
continuing. "She met his father after the attack at lunch. He took  
off, but she.......interrogated his friend, some guy named......Tendo,  
I think. It was him that told us both Ranma's name and where to find  
him."  
  
Artemis grimaced a bit at the situation before asking for  
elaboration on one point. "Interrogated? She didn't hurt him, did  
she?" He knew how fanatical the girl could get when dealing with Him.  
He only hoped that she didn't do anything to damage someone who was  
possibly an innocent in the matter.  
  
"No, no, nothing like that. She just scared him a bit, that's  
all." Ami saw the look of relief cross Artemis's face and once again  
wondered just how much her friend changed around the boy in question.  
The look that had crossed Artemis's face had been one of real concern;  
he had truly though she may have tortured the man to get the  
information. Before she could ask anything else, Usagi beat her to the  
punch.  
  
"She's gonna be alright, right?" She asked, the concern evident on  
her face. "I mean, she seemed okay when she left, but you know her  
best, especially in this situation. Is she gonna be alright?"  
  
"Oh yes, she should be fine. She's been through this before, and  
she seemed to be taking it better than usual. As long as he didn't  
hurt her, she should be fine." He seemed to mull this over for a few  
moments, before continuing in a slightly concerned voice. "He didn't  
hurt her, did he?"  
  
Ami was quick to placate him, his worry was obvious for anyone to  
see. "No, he didn't seem to hurt her at all. He just sort  
of.......played with her for a while and then took her out of the  
fight. He never really hit her though."  
  
"Good, good." Artemis calmed down again, shaking his head  
slightly, as if the thought of her being hurt was a silly one. "He  
never had before, so I doubted it, but it has been years. He may have  
changed." He considered something for a few moments, before adding in  
a slightly conspiratorial voice. "Truth be told, though Minako will  
tell you otherwise, he was always surprisingly gentle in their fights.  
He always fought back, of course, and usually humiliated her in some  
way or another, but he never really hurt her. Well, physically,  
anyway."  
  
He left it at that, though they all knew what he meant. For her to  
still be so angry with him, even years later, what she went through  
must have been really traumatic to her. Though if the fights were  
anything like the one earlier, they would be pretty hard on a thirteen  
year old girl's psyche.  
  
Artemis jumped down from Ami's arms at that point and bid them all  
goodnight, saying he wanted to stay with Minako, in case she woke up.  
Though Ami offered to fill him in on everything that had happened, he  
turned her down, stating that he would wait until Minako woke up. He  
knew she would want to talk about it, afterall, and would be there for  
her when she did. After that, he headed back up the tree and into her  
window, leaving four still confused Senshi to make their way home in  
silence, each hoping for the best for their friend.  
  
*********************************************************************  
  
After the fight, Ranma spent some time simply jumping about the  
rooftops of Nerima. It helped him cool off, feeling the breeze in his  
face as he moved in ways that most people could never accomplish. The  
fight had been decent, the girl was certainly fast enough to have  
given him a run for his money. Unfortunately, it had been far to short  
a time between the beginning of the fight and the point where she lost  
control. This took most of the enjoyment out of it for Ranma as it  
became a lot less a contest of skills at that point so much as a test  
to see just how angry she could become. As much fun as taunting her  
was, it just wasn't as satisfying as fighting someone who could keep  
their cool. Sometimes he really missed fighting V-chan. Sure she was  
pretty quick tempered at the start, but after the month's of fighting  
it had gotten to the point where it took quite a while before he could  
get her to lose it completely. Now those fights had been fun. Still,  
he had enjoyed putting that phony in her place.  
  
Having cooled off from his fight, he made his way home, fully  
expecting a confrontation with Akane, having been avoiding her all  
day. What he didn't expect, though in retrospect he probably should  
have, was Nabiki waiting for him when he entered. "hey, Nabiki. What's  
up?"  
  
"Have a nice run, Saotome?" She smiled at him in a surprisingly  
friendly sort of way, rather than her usual 'I know something you  
don't know' manner. He knew, of course, that she already knew about  
his fight earlier. The Sailor Senshi were akin to celebrities and a  
visit by one of them was bound to be the talk of the town. Especially  
when it included a fight with the largest source of rumours and such  
in town. Rather than comment, he simply nodded at her and returned her  
smile, hoping that it meant that he wasn't in trouble for any reason.  
She got to the matter quite quickly, obviously deciding not to beat  
around the bush too much. "I heard about your fight, of course.  
Hanging out with old friends, were you?"  
  
He frowned a bit at her assumption that it was his old friend he  
had been fighting with. It was strange that her sources had given her  
such off information. "Nope. I'm not sure who told you otherwise, but  
it wasn't V-chan I was sparing with, it was that Sailor Venus woman."  
He could see the look in Nabiki's eyes, the one that said that she was  
about to spring some bit of information on him, and for once he knew  
what she was going to say. It just seemed the natural thing for her to  
comment on. "And, no, despite what you may have heard, they're not the  
same person. The fighting style was similar, but she was nowhere near  
as good as V-chan. Venus has obviously studied her, but they're  
definitely not the same."  
  
Nabiki seemed surprised by that, though whether it was from the  
fact that she was wrong, or that Ranma knew what she was going to say  
he couldn't tell. He simply allowed her the time to collect her  
thoughts and answer him. "Hmmm, I guess that blows that theory out of  
the water. Funny, I always thought that it was true, that they were  
the same person. I guess you would be the one to know though." Ranma  
was almost floored at that comment. The fact that Nabiki was admitting  
that she was wrong was, while not a common occurrence, not  
unprecedented either. The thing that stunned him the most was the fact  
that she took his word over that of her contacts. "Oh, don't look so  
stunned, Ranma-kun. It was all guesswork on whether they were the same  
or not. Frankly, you're the only one I know of that's actually met  
both of them, and while I may not trust you on everything, when it  
comes to combat, you are the expert."  
  
It made sense, of course. Ranma was the one who had years of  
training to recognize styles and abilities so he would definitely be  
the one to ask about things of that source. Having seemingly found out  
what she wanted to know, Nabiki left him at that, heading up to her  
room to do her homework, though not before a final word. "Oh yeah,  
Akane's looking for you. She looks pissed too, so be careful what you  
say."  
  
And with that, she was gone, leaving Ranma to his own devices.  
Sighing to himself, he figured it was probably for the best that he  
found Akane now, knowing she would only get more upset if he avoided  
her any longer. Continuing into the house, he headed out to the dojo  
knowing, from the noise he could hear, that that was where Akane  
currently was. Reaching the dojo doors, he opened them a little,  
allowing himself a peak inside to see just how upset she was without  
notifying her of his presence. Seeing her practicing, Ranma sighed to  
himself again, this time in slight disappointment. Breaking bricks and  
working on the training dummy were all well and good but he couldn't  
understand how she thought she would improve when that was all she  
did. Sure, every once in a while she would ask to spar with him, but  
she got frustrated so easily that those sessions never lasted long and  
she usually didn't ask again for a while. As if it was his fault she  
was too slow to hit him. He certainly wasn't going to fight back until  
she was good enough to handle it, which, right now, she wasn't.  
  
Stepping into the dojo, he made sure to let the door creak  
slightly, announcing his presence. People tended to be upset when he  
snuck up on them and the last thing he needed was her being even more  
upset. Hearing him enter, Akane turned to face him, sweat shinning on  
her forehead as she used the back of her hand to wipe it off. Seeing  
who it was, she glared at him slightly, waiting for him to speak.  
  
"So....umm, how ya doing, Akane?" He knew it was lame, but he  
couldn't think of anything else to say at the moment. He really didn't  
want to argue with her, but he knew that just about anything he said  
would bring them to that point. Sometimes he really hated his lack of  
social abilities. "Nabiki said you were looking for me?"  
  
Akane scowled at him for a moment before sighing a bit as well and  
answering him. "You've been avoiding me all day. I don't think it took  
Nabiki to tell you I was looking for you." Ranma tensed slightly at  
that, Akane being far too calm for his tastes. Not that he had any  
desire to meet her wraith up close and personal but he was a lot more  
used to her hot temper than this calm, if tired looking Akane. "Not  
that it matters, I guess. Look, Ranma, I really don't feel like  
arguing this time so why don't you just tell me about your so called  
'V-chan' and get it over with."  
  
This attitude surprised Ranma enough that he didn't even come out  
with any biting comment about how it was her that usually started the  
fights, being the uncute tomboy she was. Instead, he merely told her  
an abbreviated version of the story he had told Nabiki earlier,  
leaving out much of the details and simply telling her of their  
meeting and how they used to fight from time to time. She seemed a lot  
less upset over the matter than Nabiki had, but then he left out a lot  
of the more humiliating things he had told Nabiki about, so it was  
only natural. She was still managing to build a bit of indignation at  
the way he described some of their fights, but she held it in quite  
well. When he finished, Akane simply nodded and looked thoughtful for  
a few moments before continuing to the next question. "I heard you  
fought her again earlier. I thought you said you haven't seen her in  
years."  
  
"Naw, that wasn't V-chan. That was one of your Sailor Senshi  
chicks, Sailor Venus." He answered, once again a little upset at how  
many people simply assumed that they were one and the same. What  
annoyed him the most about it was that it seemed to give validity to  
what Venus was doing. Her cheap imitation was doing it's job as she  
was taking most of V-chan's fame, taking credit for her early work and  
getting her fans. It bothered him that such a cheap trip would work so  
well. "She sucked anyway. No match for me."  
  
"They're the same person, Baka." Akane retorted, some of her anger  
flowing back in at the insult to one of her idols. "And don't insult  
the Senshi, they're great warriors!"  
  
Ranma snorted at the thought of those rank amateurs being called  
great warriors. Despite having no intention of being pulled into an  
argument, he couldn't help but throw in his two cents at her comment.  
"I don't know about warrior, but she sure proved her swimming skills  
when I threw her ass in the canal." He couldn't help but smirk at the  
incredulous expression that crossed her face as Akane formed her  
comeback, ending the brief lawl in their aggression and bringing their  
talk back into the level of verbal sparring.  
  
*********************************************************************  
  
Morning dawned bright and early for Minako. Despite her previous  
day, she found herself looking forward to her day a good deal more  
than one would expect. She knew that most people would expect her to  
be upset over her lose the day before, and she was to an extent, but  
she also knew that she wasn't fighting anywhere near her full level  
either. She was powerful, much more than she had been those years ago  
and, though she knew that he had improved since then as well, she felt  
that she was good enough now to beat Ranma if she kept her cool. Today  
was the day she would do it. Today, she would finally defeat the boy  
who had put her through so much pain over the years and finally be  
able to put the whole thing behind her.  
  
Humming softly to herself as she thought of the best strategy for  
defeating her foe, Minako absentmindedly went through her morning  
rituals, cleaning up and changing into her school clothes before  
heading downstairs for breakfast. After a quick breakfast, she headed  
back to her room where she was assaulted by a concerned, feline  
advisor, demanding answers. He seemed surprised at her good mood, but  
she got the feeling that he wasn't complaining at all, far too used to  
seeing her crying or screaming after an encounter with Ranma. She  
assuaged his fears, quickly filling him in on an abbreviated version  
of the happenings from the day before and assuring him that she had  
everything under control. Today she would end it, she would beat him.  
Artemis wasn't as sure as she was and was quick to point out that she  
had said this in the past.  
  
"Thanks for trying so hard to spoil my mood, cat." Minako said a  
bit grumpily, not liking being reminded of her past failures. Artemis  
had the good graces to look slightly guilty at that, but she picked  
him up and hugged him a bit before putting him on the bed. "I'm a lot  
stronger now, Artemis, and a lot more experienced. I can handle him  
this time. I've just gotta keep my temper under control, I can't let  
that bastard get to me." Artemis sighed a bit, knowing that she had to  
do this, had to prove she could beat him, to get over it altogether.  
Normally he would have balled her out for cursing, but he didn't  
bother this time. It was almost a compulsion, when she spoke of him,  
that she swear like a sailor. He briefly considered the pun inherent  
in that thought but put it out of his mind to give her a last word  
before she headed off to school.  
  
"I'm not saying you won't beat him, Minako-chan, I know you're  
stronger now. Just be careful, alright, I don't want to see you hurt."  
He gave her a pleading look, knowing that she tended to throw caution  
to the wind at times when dealing with the boy in question. She gave  
him a small smile, assuring him that she would, indeed, be careful in  
dealing with Ranma, before reaching over to pick up her bag from the  
corner of the room. Telling him to have a good day, she made her way  
down the stairs and out the door, heading off to class refreshed and  
on time for a change.  
  
*********************************************************************  
  
When Ami arrived in class it was to a sight that surprised her.  
Minako, earlier than her and wide-awake for a change. Not only that  
but despite her mood from the day before and all that happened during  
the day she seemed to actually be in a good mood. Worried slightly for  
her friend's mental stability, Ami made her way over to Minako's desk  
to inquire how she was doing. Minako noticed her first and greeted her  
as she made her way over.  
  
"Good morning, Ami-chan. How are you?" She sure seemed chipper  
enough, though Ami still worried for her. Minako had been rather upset  
the night before and she had to wonder what could change her mood so  
drastically. She put a smile on her face, she was glad to see her  
friend feeling better, afterall, and returned her greeting, though  
with a question included.  
  
"Good morning, Minako-chan, I'm doing well. You seem to be in a  
lot better mood this morning." At this Minako grinned a bit  
sheepishly, remember how bad a mood she'd been in the day before,  
before her grin took on a more sinister note, though Ami doubted many  
people would have noticed. It seemed like a normal Minako smile, but  
there was something in her eyes that set off alarms in Ami's head.  
Suddenly she had a bad feeling she knew why Minako was happy. She  
glanced around the empty room quickly, making sure that there was no  
one to overhear before continuing. "You're going after him again  
today, aren't you?"  
  
Minako smiled brightly, seemingly not at all upset that Ami knew  
what she had planned, and answered in a happy voice. "Yup, and I'm  
gonna beat him this time. That asshole won't know what hit him." Ami  
started a bit at the casual use of an obscenity on Minako's part,  
wondering if she even noticed she was swearing. She would have to ask  
Artemis about it sometime since it seemed to only occur when  
discussing Ranma.  
  
"I don't know, Minako-chan, maybe you should just stay away from  
him. He could be dangerous." She knew there was no real use in asking,  
but she had to none-the-less. If there was any chance of talking her  
friend out of this seeming obsession than she needed to try. Minako  
only shook her head before looking at Ami a bit sadly.  
  
When she answered Ami, Minako spoke in a voice full of  
resignation. "I can't give up, you know that. I have to beat him, if  
only once, so I can put it behind me." She smiled sadly for a moment  
before brightening considerably. "Besides, I know I can beat him. I  
was tired and angry yesterday, so I wasn't fighting at my best. As  
long as I can keep my cool, he doesn't stand a chance." Ami had to  
admit, she was at least partially right. She had been very tired and  
had lost her temper very quickly. Without those two factors slowing  
her down, she had no doubt Minako would be a sight to behold in a  
fight. Whether that would be enough to deal with the boy in question,  
Ami had yet to figure out, however.  
  
"Alright, I didn't think I could talk you out of it anyway."  
Minako smiled at her once more, happy that she wouldn't have to argue  
with her friends. When Ami continued, however, Minako's smile dropped  
a little. "I'm coming with you, though. You need someone there to  
cover your back."  
  
"No. I don't want anyone there to interfere. This is my fight, it  
has to stay that way." Minako had a determined look in her eyes and  
Ami knew that she would have to fight hard to come along. Seeing how  
determined Ami was, however, Minako continued before she could say  
anything. "You can come on two conditions. One: that you stay  
untransformed. I've decided to go in my old costume this time and I  
don't want it being associated with the Senshi for now." Seeing Ami  
nod, though reluctantly, Minako finished. "And two: you will not  
interfere in any way, shape or form. This is my fight, it started that  
way and it's gonna finish that way. You can come if you want, but I  
don't want you interrupting this, no matter what happens. Are we  
clear?"  
  
Ami thought about it for a few moments, considering exactly what  
was being asked of her before answering carefully. "As long as the  
fight stays clean, I'll stay out of it. If it looks like he's hurting  
you in any way that he doesn't have to, I will interfere. That's the  
best I can offer." Minako ran that through her head for a few moments  
before nodding her accent. It was a good idea, she supposed, to have a  
bit of back up, just in case things got out of hand. She didn't  
believe it would happen, Ranma never really hurt her in their fights,  
but it was still nice to know her friend cared. By then, people had  
begun to filter into the room and they could no longer talk about it  
so Ami made her way back to her desk to wait for class to start.  
  
*********************************************************************  
  
Convincing the others not to come had been surprisingly easy. Ami  
had merely explained to them that having the four of them present for  
two Senshi sightings in as many days was too much of a risk to their  
identities and that, on the off chance things got out of hand, one of  
them should be enough to assist Minako, should she require it. So it  
was that the two of them, in Senshi form, were making their quick way  
across the rooftops in the direction of Furinkan High School in the  
middle of the lunch hour. Though Ami was reluctant to push their luck  
at getting back in time for class, Minako had insisted that it would  
be the easiest way to find her quarry, already having knowledge of his  
school's location from the previous day's excursion.  
  
It was surprisingly quick work to cross the roof tops to Nerima, a  
great deal faster, in fact, than the bus had been and they found  
themselves on a building overlooking the school in under ten minutes.  
They stopped at that point and both leapt down into the ally next to  
the building. After ensuring that there was no-one to see them, Ami  
detransformed and Minako used her disguise pen to alter her appearance  
back to that of her original Sailor V outfit. She smiled a little,  
looking down at herself in an outfit she hadn't used in two years.  
Somehow it just seemed appropriate to be finishing this fight in the  
outfit she began it in. Besides, despite how much she liked her new  
outfit, and she did a good deal, her old one still held a special  
place in her heart. That and she thought the cut-off mid-rift looked  
really sexy on her. Telling Ami that she would see her soon, she leapt  
back up to the top of the building, watching as Ami made her way  
across the street and into the school yard, mixing with the students a  
bit there. She noticed that Ami got a few odd looks, probably due to  
the fact that her uniform was different, but she seemed to know a few  
of the people there and quickly started chatting with a couple of boys  
Minako had never met before. She wondered briefly if her friend had  
been keeping a secret boyfriend from them before dismissing it as  
something she would bring up at a later date. Right now, her mind  
needed to be focussed on the task at hand.  
  
Leaping across the distance, she landed lightly on the high,  
concrete wall that surrounded the school and began visually sweeping  
the area for her foe. It was only moments before her eyes fell on him,  
speaking with a rather handsome boy selling what looked like  
okonomiyaki. He was fairly close to the wall on which she stood,  
though further down it, so she decided to use it for her dramatic  
entrance. Running down the wall, she made her way until she was a much  
shorter distance from him, within attacking range, and shouted out her  
challenge.  
  
"Ranma Saotome!" She shouted, quickly gaining everyone's attention  
in the vacinity. She barely noticed, her eyes only on the young man,  
who's own eyes sparkled with recognition and amusement. It still urked  
her slightly how he always seemed to find amusement in her entrances,  
but they were a tradition that she wasn't willing to break. She would  
fight him the way she always did, and it was that way that she'd beat  
him. She'd been angry the day before, which is why she attacked so  
hastily. This time, she would give him advanced warning, a fair fight,  
so she could prove once and for all that she was the better. "For your  
crimes of protecting your bastard father from my wraith, and the sin  
of insulting me on far too many occasions to count, I'm gonna fucking  
take you apart. Prepare yourself, Saotome, this time you're going  
down."  
  
Not stopping to let him speak, she quickly made sure of her  
position, seeing that there was no one between them or behind him,  
before beginning the fight with her traditional move. "Venus Crescent  
Beam!!" The blast of energy shot from her hands, blasting towards the  
grinning boy who stood motionless in its wake. Not waiting to see him  
dodge it, as she knew he would, Minako leapt towards him, following in  
the wake of the attack with a flying sidekick. She saw him dodge to  
the side, barely moving as she had expected, and allowing the attack  
to dig a long trench in the ground behind him. Following up the  
attack, her kick came much closer, forcing him to redirect it to his  
right as he dodged even further left. Having counted on this, V  
brought her foot to the ground, digging her heel in slightly to stop  
her momentum, before using the remainder of it to spin into a  
roundhouse kick towards his head. Ranma leaned almost ninety degrees  
backward to evade it, before going into a handspring backward to gain  
himself some space to breathe. After several handsprings he stopped  
far enough back to put himself out of immediate attacking distance and  
landed in a ready stance, smiling brightly at her.  
  
"V-chan!" He said brightly, gaining several surprised looks from  
the people in the crowd. They all knew about Ranma's fight with Sailor  
Venus the day before but none of them knew that he was so close to the  
near-legendary fighter. Sailor V just growled slightly at the pet name  
he had insisted on using for her since the day they'd met. Reminding  
herself that she had to keep her temper, she visibly calmed, dropping  
into a ready stance surprisingly similar to Ranma's and waited for him  
to continue. "It's great ta see ya! Here I thought you'd retired or  
something. I wouldn't 'a blamed you though, after seeing the losers  
that came after you. It must be embarrassing seeing wimps like that  
Sailor Venus out there, ruining your good name."  
  
Minako tried very hard to keep the scowl from her face as Ranma  
insulted her other identity and her friends. She couldn't keep it off  
completely though, and merely contented herself with knowing that  
she'd finally wipe that annoying smirk off of his face and make him  
admit that she was the better. "I'm not here to talk, Ranma." She  
began, cutting off his opinion of Sailor Venus's fighting skills,  
which he graded as slightly better than a trained chimp, before  
continuing. "I'm here to fight. Let's go!" She then ran towards him  
once more.  
  
*********************************************************************  
  
As she made her way into the school grounds, Ami was very aware of  
the looks she was receiving, no doubt from her uniform, which was a  
great deal different from everyone else's. She was beginning to think  
this was a really bad idea when she spotted someone she knew, if only  
slightly. Or, more to the point, he spotted her and made his way over,  
his friend following behind. When he saw that she had seen him, the  
boy waved at her and continued making his way to her. She tentatively  
waved back and waited for him to reach her. Once he had, he greeted  
her in a friendly voice.  
  
"Hey, how's it going?" Daisuke began, once he had reached her. His  
friend, Hiroshi, merely nodded to her from behind him. "Wha'cha doing  
here this time of day? And where are your friends?"  
  
Ami almost felt a moment's panic at the thought of saying why she  
was here, but remembered the excuse she had come up with on the way  
and stuck to it. "I'm doing good. I'm just here to check out the  
school since my mom was thinking of moving us here." She ignored the  
bit about her friends, deciding to just change the topic instead. "How  
are you two doing?"  
  
"Oh, we're doing well enough, considering we're at school." He  
smiled jokingly at her, showing he wasn't overly serious. He then  
seemed to come to a realization and spoke up on it. "You know, I don't  
think we really introduced ourselves. I'm Daisuke, this is Hiroshi."  
He said, pointing to his fair-haired companion, who smiled at her  
before turning his attention back to some girls walking by. Ami  
couldn't help but giggle a bit, having already known who they were  
since they had mentioned their names the day before.  
  
"I know," She smiled, "You said that yesterday." Daisuke blushed  
embarrassedly and was swatted over the head by Hiroshi, causing Ami to  
giggle again before she introduced herself. "I'm Ami, it's nice to  
meet you, again. So, what's this school like, anyway?" She asked,  
playing her role of visiting student to the hilt.  
  
"Oh, it's not so bad. There's always good entertainment as Ranma  
gets into one fight or another." He smiled a bit, remembering what he  
was telling her and her friends the day before and how disbelieving  
they were. If she decided to come here, she would definitely start  
believing in a real hurry. He was about to say something of the sort  
when a shout caught their attentions and all three turned to see  
someone standing on the wall near Ranma. "Hey, isn't that that Sailor  
chick from yesterday?" He asked nobody in particular.  
  
"No, that one was wearing a different outfit. That looks like  
Sailor V to me." Hiroshi spoke up, staring at the girl yelling at  
Ranma.  
  
Daisuke looked at his friend for a moment before turning back to  
the girl on the wall. "Hmm, I think you're right." He seemed to  
consider something for a moment and then spoke up again. "Didn't she  
retire though?"  
  
Hiroshi laughed a little before responding. "Looks like she came  
out of retirement just to fight Ranma. Wow, two Senshi in two days.  
That's impressive, even for him." Suddenly the whole area lit up as  
Sailor V fired off a huge blast of energy, which tore up a large  
section of the ground after Ranma dodged it in a rather casual manner.  
This was followed by a brief confrontation, which proved Ami right in  
her theory about Minako's skill. Now that she was well rested and  
fighting intelligently her skill level was higher than Ami had ever  
seen it. Her speed was phenomenal and the shear skill she was showing  
put even Makoto to shame. Yet, her opponent was still able to dodge  
around everything she threw at him. It made Ami glad she had once  
again set up her computer to scan the fight. She had yet to analyze  
the readings she had taken the day before but she knew that between  
what she got then and what she was getting now she should be able to  
figure out how he did what he did.  
  
They stopped fighting for a moment and Ranma spoke up for the  
first time, shocking all present.  
  
"V-chan?!?" Was repeated by all three of them incredulously as  
even the desensitized boys were surprised by this latest development.  
They all stared as Ranma went into a speech about how she should be  
ashamed of the people who had replaced her and how he was glad to see  
her back in the action again. Despite her normally calm nature, Ami  
had to hold her temper as he began speaking badly of her and her  
friends. She was brought out of her anger, however, when Hiroshi spoke  
up again.  
  
"Wow, that was unexpected." Daisuke merely nodded as they watched  
Sailor V run towards Ranma again for another exchange. "I wonder how  
long he's known her. The only one he ever calls by a nickname is Ukyo  
and he's been best friends with her since they were, like, six or  
something."  
  
Ami glanced sharply at him for a moment, wondering if perhaps  
Ranma didn't hate Minako quite so much as she did him. The evidence  
seemed to point that way and she was having trouble coming up with any  
other solution. Daisuke spoke up then, adding his two cents to the  
topic. "There's gotta be more going on here than we know of. Maybe  
they used to date or something."  
  
Ami had to refrain herself from laughing outloud at that. The  
thought of Minako ever willingly dating Ranma, someone she would  
sooner kill than talk to, was too ridiculous to picture. She decided  
to throw in an opinion, if only to see what they said. "I don't know,  
she doesn't seem to like him much. I can't really see them dating."  
  
Hiroshi smirked a bit at something, though Ami didn't really  
understand what was funny about what she had said. He filled her in  
quickly though, his eyes never leaving the fight. "Everyone who ever  
comes looking for Ranma is pissed at him. They usually get over it.  
The girls do, anyway, the guys usually just try to kill him all the  
time."  
  
Daisuke spoke up again then, some amusement in his voice, though  
she could sense a little sympathy as well. "It's usually because of  
something his father did, though Ranma tends to get blamed."  
  
"I see." Was all Ami could say at this revelation. She was really  
beginning to wonder if Ranma was all that bad a guy. She turned her  
mind off of the matter as she set her eyes back on the fight.  
  
*********************************************************************  
  
Minako jumped back from her latest assault to a decent distance  
for a moment's rest. The sweat was dripping down her face and she felt  
like she had fought three youma consecutively, but she was still going  
strong. Best of all, she was still in total control of her temper.  
Neither of them had scored a good hit yet but Minako knew it was  
merely a matter of time before she broke through his defenses. She  
tried her best not to take note of the fact that he wasn't sweating  
nearly as badly as she was. Breathing deeply to settle herself, Minako  
threw herself forward as fast as she could, pumping her legs to fly  
into Ranma's guard in the hopes of getting to him before he could put  
up a defense.  
  
The effort was for naught as the punch she had set at him was  
deftly deflected, followed by him dodging both the following reverse  
punch and spinning back-kick. As soon as V had finished her kick, she  
was forced to block three punches as well, two mid-level followed by a  
high punch. Ducking under Ranma's follow-up roundhouse kick, she  
attempted to sweep his leg out from under him, only to have him use  
her head as a handy surface to use for a handspring, pushing himself  
behind her. She had expected this, however, having seen him do it  
before and used her spinning momentum to turn her sweep into a  
roundhouse of her own, managing to tag him in the chest for her first  
solid hit in the fight. He flew back a ways before bringing himself to  
a stop, one hand resting on his chest where she had hit him. Minako  
smirked at him, but he only smiled brightly in return, irritating her  
with his good cheer.  
  
"Hey, you've really improved." He said and for the first time  
Minako noticed that he'd been surprisingly quiet throughout the entire  
match. He had thrown in the odd comment about her stance, or how she  
did a kick, but not so much as a single remark about her looks or  
anything like that. It was surprising, but she decided not to dwell on  
it. She was doing well and didn't want to get distracted by wondering  
why he was acting differently. She saw him tense slightly and suddenly  
got a very bad feeling. "You've definitely been practicing since the  
last time we fought, but now it's time we got serious." He grinned at  
her in that boyish way that she always lamented would have been cute  
on anyone but him and ran straight for her, faster than even she had  
been earlier. She quickly threw up her defense and was able to block  
most of the incoming punches and kicks though several still made it  
through her defenses.  
  
Ranma then pulled back a bit, giving her breathing room, before  
darting in once more to land a few hits on her. This when on for quite  
some time as he led her around the school yard in a seeming random  
pattern, merely darting in and out, never letting her get up a decent  
defense. Though the hits were never terribly hard, it was wearing  
Minako down rapidly as she was unable to take a moment to regain her  
breath. All the time, that infuriating grin was plastered on Ranma's  
face, nearly driving all her work to keep her temper out the window.  
She did manage to hold it though, refusing to give him that small  
victory even if is looked like he'd win the fight. He stepped back for  
a moment once more, giving her a bit of room for a moment before  
flying in again, throwing several quick punches at her head and chest.  
Rather than trying to block or dodge the punches, knowing they were  
too fast for either, V tried, instead, to back up quickly to escape,  
never noticing the slight ledge behind her foot. Tripped up, she began  
to fall backwards and closed her eyes, expecting a painful crash. What  
she wasn't expecting was to stop suddenly, almost horizontal over the  
ground. Looking up to see what had stopped her, Minako almost stopped  
breathing at the sight that reached her.  
  
Ranma stood above her, one hand on her shoulder, the other on her  
lower back, holding her fast. She could feel his body pressed up  
against hers and couldn't help but notice how warm it felt, how  
pleasant. Looking at his face, which was so close that their noses  
almost touched, she almost got lost in his blue eyes, the feeling of  
his breath on her face causing her heart to beat faster and a pretty  
blush to form on her face. His grin was gone now, in it's place a  
serious look as he stared straight into her eyes. When he spoke, she  
felt a shiver run down her spine, though she was hard pressed to tell  
if it was from anger or lust. "Admit it," he said in a soft, sensual  
voice. "You missed me."  
  
Minako was having difficulty breathing at all at that point, let  
alone answering when suddenly his mouth quirked up into his grin once  
more and she suddenly got a very bad feeling. Ranma quickly reached  
his face up and kissed her on the tip of the nose, causing her eyes to  
widen and the blush to increase on her face, before whispering one  
more thing.  
  
"Bye." And then she felt the hands leave her back and only had a  
moment to realize he had let go of her before she began falling again.  
She got one glance of him turning and heading for the wall before she  
hit the surface of the pool she had been standing in front of. Quickly  
breaking the surface she sputtered in anger and embarrassment for a  
moment before screaming in anger and hauling herself out. Getting to  
her feet, she rushed in the direction she had seen Ranma go and  
quickly leapt over the wall before her.  
  
*********************************************************************  
  
Ranma was laughing internally as she stood on the other side of  
the school wall, slightly damp from the puddle she had used to change  
her gender. She made sure to keep a straight face, however, as she  
waited for Sailor V to follow her. She didn't have to wait long,  
however, as V soon leapt over the wall Ranma was now leaning against  
and looked around for any sight of her, or him, as Sailor V believed.  
She could barely hold in her laughter at seeing her frustrated look.  
Sometimes having the curse was a good thing, she had never gotten to  
see the expressions on V-chan's face after she got away from her  
before.  
  
V quickly noticed Ranma standing there and turned towards her with  
a slightly frenzied look on her face. Seeing the masked girl moving  
towards her, Ranma tried to look as if she was surprised. V quickly  
reached her and asked her where the black-haired boy had gone.  
  
"You mean Ranma?" Ranma asked as innocently as she could manage,  
bubbling with laughter on the inside. "He barely touched down before  
he was on the roofs. I wouldn't be surprised if he was halfway across  
town by now."  
  
Sailor V gave a frustrated growl before jumping up on the  
indicated roof and looking around. Not seeing her prey anywhere, she  
screamed in frustration and jumped back down. She tried valiantly to  
hold back her angry tears but she couldn't help but let them out a bit  
as she banged her fist into the ground, imbedding it in the concrete.  
Ranma was no longer laughing now but was getting a little worried. She  
wasn't supposed to be this upset, she wasn't usually. She certainly  
wasn't supposed to be crying. She was supposed to be cursing at him  
and yelling about how she would get him the next time they met and  
other such things. She wasn't sure why V-chan was so upset, but she  
really didn't like it.  
  
"Hey, what's wrong?" Ranma asked in a slightly worried voice,  
trying to keep the panic from showing. She really didn't deal with  
tears well. "It was just a stupid fight, right? I mean, who cares if  
you lost to Ranma. Everyone does."  
  
Sailor V turned towards Ranma, tears streaming down her face as  
she regarded the shorter girl in front of her. She shook her head,  
trying, to no avail, to wipe the tears away but they kept coming. "You  
don't understand." She choked out. "I tried so hard this time. I....I  
thought I'd finally get him." With a last sob she managed to get  
herself together enough to stop crying as badly, shakily standing and  
looking sadly at the girl in front of her. "If I could just beat him,  
just once, I could forget about that bastard forever."  
  
Ranma's eyes widened slightly at that, her breath shortening as  
she struggled to say something in reply. "He.......he can't be that  
bad.......can he? I mean, he's.......he's always seemed nice enough to  
me." She put a hopeful look on her face, praying that she had merely  
misheard her friend when she spoke so badly of him. They were friends,  
right? They always had been. Sure, Ranma liked to tease her a bit, and  
goading her on in a fight was always fun, but that was just it, it was  
all part of the fun.  
  
"You don't know him like I do. He's the meanest, most spiteful  
bastard I've ever met." She shuddered a bit and Ranma wondered f the  
mere thought of her was that distasteful. "He spent months torturing  
me. I hate him so much. If I could just beat him once........" She  
trailed off, her fist clenched as she thought about ways to defeat the  
bain of her existence. After a moment she seemed to remember where she  
was, looking back up to see Ranma staring at her with a slightly wide-  
eyed expression. "Look, I gotta go. Thanks for listening."  
  
Ranma simply nodded, too stunned by her revelation to say  
anything, and watched as one of the only friends she had left  
disappeared over the rooftops and out of her life, joining the ranks  
of people who hated her. She couldn't help but realize that for once  
it was completely her fault as she had pushed her V-chan to such a  
position with what she thought was harmless fun. She barely noticed  
the few tears that made it down her face as she realized that she  
truly had no friends left.  
  
  
  
To Be Continued.........  
  
Author's Note: Wow, that was really, really long. Ended it on a bit of  
a downer too, but it'll get better.........probably, anyway.^_^;;  
I don't really have much to say on this one except don't expect them  
all to be this long, I just had a lot of ground to cover. I didn't  
expect it to go this long, but I had the end worked out and didn't  
want to stop till I reached it.  
As usual, C&C is welcome, encouraged and heavily appreciated. It can  
be sent to either my email at ranikkoku@hotmail.com or leave a message  
on the guestbook of my website at www.geocities.com/ranikkoku  
Thank for reading and I hope you enjoyed it.  
Bob Lobster 


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